Awakening 

Of 
Hezekiah 


Jones 


A  Story  Dealing  with  Some  of  the  Problems 
Affecting  the  Political  Rewards  Due  the  Negro 


By    JOHN    EDWARD    BRUCE 
"BRUCE  GRIT" 


PHIL  H.  BROWN,  Publisher 

HOPKINSVILLE,  KY. 


. 


University  of  California  •  Berkeley 


COPY  RIGHT  1916 

BY 
PHIL  H.  BROWN 


PREFACE 

The  simple  announcement  of  the  purpose  of  Mr.  John 
E.  Bruce  (Bruce-Grit)  to  write  a  story  dealing  with  some  of 
the  problems  affecting  the  political  rewards  due  and  obtain- 
able by  the  Negro  wherever  he  is  a  conscious  factor,  should 
be  sufficient  to  arrest  public  attention  in  anticipation  of  a 
clever  story;  for  there  is  no  non  de  plume  more  widely 
known,  nor  one  possessing  greater  ability  than  he  to  entertain 
and  instruct.  First,  he  is  a  master  of  the  art  of  graphic  ex- 
pression; he  excels  as  a  delineator  of  character,  his  style  is 
unique  and  inimitable.  His  many  years  of  service  as  news- 
paper correspondent  and  as  editor,  covering  more  than  thirty 
years,  have  given  him  contact,  observation,  and  experience. 
With  these  has  come  wisdom,  giving  clarity  to  his  vision,  san- 
ity to  his  judgments,  moral  courage  to  his  expressions.  The 
story  which  he  gives  is  in  accord  with  twentieth  century  con- 
ditions and  not  along  the  lines  of  reconstruction  dreams. 

Mr.  Bruce  was  born  in  Maryland,  near  the  National  Cap- 
ital, at  a  time  that  enabled  him  to  see  very  much  of  the  great 
men  who  made  Civil  War  and  Reconstruction  history.  His 
facilities  for  education,  owing  to  the  humble  circumstances  of 
his  parentage,  were  scant;  but  by  dint  of  industry,  his  am- 
bition and  his  will  he  availed  himself  of  these  to  such  an  ex- 
tent that  from  this  school  of  adversity,  in  which  he  was  en- 
vironed, he  graduated,  so  to  speak,  summa  cam  laude. 

On  of  his  employments  as  a  youth  in  the  seventies  was 
with  a  well-known  Washington  correspondent  of  a  New  York 
daily.  He  saw  and  heard  many  things  in  those  days  in  which 
he  was  not  supposed  to  have  any  interest.  These  fired  his 
soul,  they  excited  his  ambition,  they  were  greater  teachers 
than  the  school  room  routine  of  these  days. 

The  men  who  employed  him  were  attracted  to  his  un- 
usual abilities  which  they  recognized  and  encouraged.  Thus 
were  laid  the  stepping  stones  on  which  he  trod  with  a  self- 
reliance  that  caused  him  to  write  to  newspapers,  then  to  pub- 
lish one  in  collaboration  with  men  with  the  advantage  of  the 


schools  who  recognized  his  merit.  Finally  he  became  an 
author.  A  few  years  ago  he  published  "Biographies  of 
Eminent  Negro  Men  and  Women  of  Europe  and  North  Amer- 
ica/' a  volume  of  more  than  100  pages.  Several  pamphlets  on 
burning  questions  are  to  his  credit,  such  as  "The  Blood  Red 
Record/'  "The  Nation,  the  Law,  the  Citizen"  and  "Defence  of 
the  Negro  Soldier."  Prom  pamphleteer  and  biographer  he 
shies  his  castor  in  the  field  of  fiction.  A  glance  at  the  ad- 
vanced sheets  of  "The  Awakening  of  Hezekiah  Jones"  shows 
that  from  different  view-points  he  has  predicated  the  finish 
that  awaits  the  would-be  politician  who  looks  to  reward  based 
largely  on  numbers  and  racial  backing,  to  find  the  true  secret 
of  success  in  the  game  of  practical  politics. 

JOHN  W.  CROMWELL, 

Author,  "The  Negro  in  American  History." 
Principal  of  The  Alex.  Cromwell  School. 
Secretary  of  The  Negro  American  Academy. 

Washington,  D.  C., 
Sept.  30,  1915. 


PRESS  OF 

THE  SATURDAY   NEWS 
HOPKIXSVIL.LE,  KY. 


THE  AWAKENING 

OF 

HEZEKIAH  JONES 


By  JOHN  EDWARD  BRUCE 
"BRUCE  GRIT" 


CHAPTER  I. 

"And  be  these  juggling  fiends  no  more  believed 

That  palter  with  us  in  a  double  sense, 
That  keep  the  word  of  promise  to  our  ears, 

And  break  it  to  our  hopes."  — Macbeth. 


Hezekiah  Jones  was  a  man  of  color,  who  made  some  preten- 
sions to  being  a  politician.  The  little  town  in  an  Eastern 
State,  to  which  he  had  migrated  from  the  South,  shortly  after 
the  war,  contained  a  population  of  between  thirty  and  thirty- 
five  thousand  inhabitants,  of  which  number  at  the  time  of 
which  wre  write,  two  thousand,  five  hundred  were  Negroes, 
some  of  whom,  possibly  one-third,  were  natives  of  Virginia, 
Maryland  and  Kentucky.  They  were  men  and  women  of  the 
better  type  of  the  laboring  class,  who  were  attracted  to  the 
town  by  the  high  wages  paid  laborers,  mechanics  and  domes- 
tic servants — high  compared  with  the  starvation  wages  paid, 
skilled  and  unskilled  labor  in  the  States  from  which  they 
came. 

Here  Mr.  Hezekiah  Jones  had  lived  some  eighteen  or  nine- 
teen years,  where  he  was  well  and  favorably  known  to  the 
people  of  all  classes,  of  both  races,  and  especialy  was  he  pop- 
ular with  the  white  political  leaders,  who  knew  what  a  tre~ 

i 


THE  AWAKENING  OP  HEZEKIAH  JONES. 

mendous  influence  he  exerted  among  the  people  of  his  race. 
They  flattered,  cajoled  and  patronized  him,  as  is  the  won't  of 
the  crafty  and  cunning  political  leader;  called  him  "Hez" 
familiarly,  invited  him  into  their  conferences  and  caucuses 
and  treated  him  as  one  of  them. 

It  is  said  that  just  before  the  constrictor  consumes  its  prey 
it  covers  it  with  saliva  to  make  the  process  of  deglutition 
easier. 

Now,  Hezekiah  once  had  the  "distinguished  honor,"  as  he 
called  it,  of  dining  one  evening  at  the  home  of  the  chairman 
of  the  city  Republican  committee,  where  three  members  of 
the  committee  were  also  guests.  It  was  six  weeks  of  election 
and  the  mathematicians  of  the  local  organization  had  been 
working  on  some  of  the  problems  in  mathematics  that  in- 
terested them  greatly.  They  had  been  figuring  on  the  major- 
ity of  their  candidate  for  local  office  in  the  coming  election, 
and  the  chief  statistician  had  overlooked  the  Negro  vote  in  his 
•calculations,  hence  the  dinner  with  "Hez"  as  a  specially  in- 
vited guest. 

It  was  a  great  affair.  After  the  seance  the  chairman  and 
his  guests  repaired  to  the  broad  veranda  of  his  magnificent 
country  residence,  where  they  smoked  expensive  perfectos, 
sipped  choice  brands  of  wine,  talked  some  practical  politics 
and  finally  elected  their  candidate  by  an  overwhelming 
majority.  The  chairman,  who  was  a  wise  politician,  was  also 
a  fisher  of  men.  This  little  affair  was  always  alluded  to  by 
Mr.  Jones,  in  a  matter-of-fact  way,  and  with  the  evident  pur- 
pose of  leaving  on  the  minds  of  those  with  whom  he  talked 
about  it,  the  impression  that  eating  canvas-back  duck  and 
drinking  champagne  with  city  chairman,  and  smoking  cigars 
costing  fifty  cents  a  piece  was  a  very  ordinary  matter,  which 
in  truth  it  was.  Since  the  chairman  was  only  a  man,  like 
the  rest  of  us,  but  unlike  rest  or  most  of  us,  he  had  succeeded  in 
rising  rather  rapidly  in  the  world,  and  in  possessing  himself 
of  a  comfortable  bank  account,  so  fat  that  he  could  eat  can- 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  HEZEKIAH  JONES. 

vass-back  duck  every  day  if  he  wanted  to  without  feeling  the 
strain. 

After  this  famous  social  tete-a-tete,  Hezekiah  swelled  up 
like  a  South  Carolina  cushion-fish,  and  always  seemed  to  have 
more  dignity  than  dollars,  but  he  was  not,  be  it  said  to  his 
credit,  overbearing  in  his  manner.  Still  he  gave  one  the  im- 
pression by  his  manner  that  he  "  warn 't  no  ordinary  person. " 
He  always  refered  to  the  city  chairman  as  "my  frien'  Cy." 

When  among  his  own  people  he  had  the  faculty  of  making 
them  feel  a  little  prouder  of  him  because  of  the  social 
eminence  he  had  suddenly  attained,  and  because  as  many  of 
his  associates  said  he  "warn't  stuck  up  ner  selfish."  They 
saw  in  the  influence  which  he  was  building  up  among  leading 
white  politicians  of  the  city  and  county,  immense  potentialties, 
which  would  some  day  blossom  into  lucrative  jobs  for  the 
faithful  who  stood  by  their  leader  and  sneezed  whenever  he 
took  snuff.  They  were  loyal. 

He  was  honest  and  faithful  to  their  interests.  They  were 
as  true  to  him  as  the  needle  to  the  pole.  They  were  an  hon- 
est-minded, simple-hearted  folk,  who  had  a  sincere  respect  for 
him  and  abiding  confidence  in  his  honesty  and  good  faith — 
most  unusual  traits  in  Negroes  banded  together  politically  and 
fraternally,  where  usually  every  fifth  man  is  a  candidate  for 
leader.  But  Hezekiah  had  no  rivals  for  leadership.  He  was 
* '  monarch  of  all  he  surveyed ' '  politically  in  that  town. 

It  may  be  that  Hezekiah  owed  his  good  fortune  in  being 
recognized  and  accepted  by  the  mass  of  his  followers  as  a  sort 
of  "uncrowned  king"  to  the  fact  that  he  was  several  persim- 
mons above  them  in  learning.  He  had  a  working  knowledge 
of  the  "three  E's,"  hence  he  was  private  secretary  to  scores  of 
them,  whose  business  affairs  they  entrusted  to  his  hands,  and 
which  he  looked  after  conscientiously.  He  wrote  their  letters, 
kept  their  accounts  straight  and  never  betrayed  the  confi- 
dence they  reposed  in  him.  The  older  men  called  him 
""•cmali  boy,  Hez"  and  the  younger  set  always  addressed  him 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  HEZEK1AH  JONES. 

deferentialy  as  "Mr.  Jones."  He  had  for  twelve  or  thirteen 
years  been  employed  as  confidential  messenger  at  the  Charter 
Oak  Bank  at  a  comfortable  salary,  with  a  yearly  gratuity  of 
anywhere  from  $75  to  $100,  according  to  the  volume  of  busi- 
ness done.  But  when  Bryan  first  ran  for  President  in  1896, 
there  was  a  decided  falling  off  in  his  annual  pickings.  He  only 
got  $25  that  year  at  Christmas.  Better  than  nothing,  thought 
Hezikiah,  still  it  was  significant  as  showing  the  trend  of  popu- 
lar thought  on  the  subject  of  the  Bryan  financial  theories. 

His  own  salary,  he  mused,  if  Mr.  Bryan  wins,  may  be 
reduced  one-half,  and  future  yearly  tips  one-fourth,  or  per- 
haps, nothing  at  all.  Perhaps,  too,  the  cut  this  year  is  a 
gentle  hint  from  the  directors  of  the  bank  to  me  to  get  un- 
usually busy  among  the  brethren  and  hold  them  in  line,  and 
also  to  show  them  what  the  fear  of  the  Bryan  theories  had 
done  for  me. 

Hezekiah  was  equal  to  the  occasion,  and  at  a  convenient 
season  there  was  a  mass  meeting  of  colored  citizens  which  was 
addressed  by  many  noted  speakers  of  both  races,  among  them 
Hezekiah  himself,  who  grew  eloquent  in  his  denunciation  of 
the  cheap  money  theories  of  "the  boy  orator  of  the  Platte," 
which  he  characterized  as  "wild-cat  financial  theories."  The 
white  speakers  pointed  out,  with  their  usual  force  and  suc- 
cinctness of  statement,  the  dangers  of  Bryanism  and  the 
sophistry  upon  which  it  rested.  The  result  was  that  the  meet- 
ing was  a  howling  success,  and  every  black  voter  pledged  him- 
self unreservedly  to  vote  against  Bryan  at  the  forthcoming 
election. 

The  chairman  of  the  city  committee,  who  was  also  a  direc- 
tor of  the  Charter  Oak  Bank,  was  not  present  at  this  meeting. 
He  was  having  a  meeting  at  the  club  rooms,  to  which  he  had 
invited  a  number  of  local  leaders.  It  was  really  a  caucus  to 
consider  candidates  for  the  City  Council,  Justices  of  the 
Peace,  Mayor,  Register  of  Deeds,  etc.,  etc.,  and  there  were 
representatives  or  proxies  from  every  ward  and  district  in 
the  city. 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  HEZEKIAH  JONES. 

It  was  quite  past  ten  o'clock  when  they  began  to  assemble 
and  well  on  to  one  in  the  morning  before  they  dispersed  for 
their  homes.  When  all  had  gathered,  the  chairman  stated  the 
object  of  the  call  to  be  to  select  candidates  for  the  various 
city  offices,  and  that  the  Spring  elections  were  near  at  hand, 
and  it  was  highly  important  that  "we  get  together"  and 
.select  a  ticket  that  will  be  acceptable  to  the  voters. 

"The  present  administration,"  he  said,  "cannot  succeed 
itself  for  the  good  and  sufficient  reason  that  it  has  not  re- 
deemed the  pledge  it  gave  to  the  people  two  years  ago,  to  give 
them  lower  taxes,  cheaper  gas,  and  better  rapid  transit  facil- 
ities. Instead  of  carrying  out  its  pre-election  pledges  to  re- 
duce taxation,  it  had  increased  the  tax  rate  and  piled  up  an 
enormous  debt  and  now  we  will  have  to  issue  bonds  in  order  to 
.save  our  credit  and  our  good  name." 

He  invited  a  full  and  free  discussion  as  to  the  availability 
and  fitness  of  a  number  of  gentlemen,  who  would  later  be 
named  as  candidates  for  the  various  offices  to  be  filled,  among 
them  Dr.  Hedges,  of  the  Fifth  Ward;  General  Thornton 
of  the  Fourth  Ward,  and  Dr.  Muriel  G.  Combs,  of  the  Seventh 
Ward,  all  excellent  gentlemen  and  he  believed  good  vote- 
getters.  Dr.  Hedges  is  a  representative  of  the  old  citizen  ele- 
ment, very  wealthy  and  popular  with  the  masses.  General 
Thornton  is  an  old  G.  A.  R.  man,  fairly  well  off  and  would  poll 
a  large  soldier  vote.  Mr.  Combs  is  our  former  Congressman, 
a  business  man  of  high  standing,  who  would  bring  to  any 
office  the  ripe  experience  in  public  affairs  gained  by  two  terms 
in  Congress,  and  would  give  the  city,  if  elected,  a  business  ad- 
ministration. 

"I  submit,  gentlemen,  these  names,  to  which  the  commit- 
tee will  add  later  some  others  for  your  earnest  consideration 
and  action.  It  seems  possible  that  we  can  here  tonight  select 
the  candidates  and  arrange  a  ticket  that  will  sweep  the  city 
"by  storm,  eight  weeks,  hence." 


THE  AWAKENING  OP  HEZEK1AH  JONES. 

CHAPTER  II. 

The  chairman  took  his  seat,  and  Citizen  Detweiller,  a- 
German  gentleman  with  a  bushy  beard  and  a  florid  complex- 
ion, arose  and  asked  the  privilege  of  speaking.  "  Every  gen- 
tleman here,"  said  the  chairman,  recognizing  the  speaker,  "is 
an  equal.  This  is  a  meeting  of  Republicans  and  all  Republi- 
cans have  a  voice  here  and  a  right  to  participate  in  choos- 
ing the  men  who  are  to  be  representatives  in  our  city  govern- 
ment. Proceed,  Mr.  Detweiller." 

Mr.  Detweiller  bowed  his  thanks,  and  proceeded  as  fol- 
lows: "Meister  Cheerman,  I  dank  you  vor  der  preevileege 
dat  you  geef  me  to  spik.  I  am  dirty  years  in  dis  gountry  und 
I  am  von  American  citizen  and  I  haf  always  wote  der  Repub- 
lican teekit.  I  have  lif  in  dees  town-  for  nineteen  years  al- 
retty  und  I  haf  woted  vor  efery  Republican  candidate  vor 
office  from  Maier  to  tog  ketcher.  I  notis  dat  der  organization 
haf  nefer  put  in  nominashuns  vor  any  office  (aldo  der  are- 
several  tousand  Yarmans  und  woters  in  dees  city  and  country) 
a  single  Yarman  vor  any  offis.  Vor  why  iss  dot,  Meister 
Cheerman.  Ton't  der  barty  count  der  Yarman  woters  unt  are 
dey  not  useful  wotes,  unt  ton't  dey  hellup  vor  to  make  major- 
ities? Den  vy  iss  der  Yarman  left  oudt  auf  der  nominashun- 
ing?  I  vould  like  to  add  to-  der  list  auf  prosbective  candi- 
dates vor  der  offis  of  Maier  mine  freund  Heinrich  Wulff,  der 
prewer,  who  I  am  sure  can  carry  all  uf  der  Yarman  woters.  I 
tank  you,  Meister  Cheerman." 

The  chairman  was  about  to  rise  to  reply  to  the  speaker 
when  another  gentleman  arose  to  claim  the  privilege  of  speak- 
ing. The  chair  deferred  to  him,  but  gave  notice  that  he  would 
later  answer  the  first  speaker's  questions  as  to  why  no  Ger- 
man had  heretofore  been  placed  in  nomination  for  city  and 
county  offices. 

The  next  speaker  said  his  name  was  Patrick  O'Hara,  and 
that  he  wasn't  Frinch  but  Oirish  and  was  rather  proud  of  it. 
He  was  an  American  by  adoption  and  from  choice,  but  h  e 

6 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  HEZEKTAH  JONES. 

would  always  by  Oirish  because  he  was  born  in  Cork  and 
couldn't  help  it.  He  continued  and  said,  "Oi  hev  listhened, 
Misther  Cheerman,  wid  a  grate  dale  av  intnrust  to  th' 
spaches  made  here  this  avenin',  an'  especially  th'  Cheerman 's 
spache.  An'  Oi  must  say,  gintlemin,  thet  Oi,  too,  loike  my 
German  frind  over  thayre,  wuz  a  little  sooproised  not  to  say 
asthonished  fer  to  hear  th'  Cheerman  mintion  awl  them 
names  f'r  th'  mare's  job,  an'  not  wan  av  thim  bein'  Orish, 
aven  in  schmell.  Now,  Sor  an'  Gintilmin,  yez  hev  seven 
tousan  Oirish  votes  in  thish  town  an'  county,  yez  hev  got  two 
tousand  an'  three  hundred  an'  fifty  German  votes  in  thish 
town  an'  county,  an'  arl  together  thet  makes  fourteen  tousan 
wan  hundred  an'  sthill  gentilmin  nayther  av  these  races  has 
had  a  lukin  in  the  pasht  nor  on  th'  ticket  which  yez  arr  about 
to  naim  heer  to-nite.  But,  Misther  Cheerman  an'  gintilmin, 
yez  will  arl  av  yez  ixpict  ivry  wan  af  thim  fer  to  vote  yure 
ticket  whin  nominayted.  But  will  they?  Now,  sorr,  while 
Oim  on  me  fate,  Oi  wish,  sor,  to  submit  for  the  considerashun 
av  this  confrince  ez  a  candydate  fer  ma 're  th'  name  av  a 
foine  old  Oirish  gintilmin,  a  warum  frind  av  moine,  an'  as 
good  Repooblican  as  iver  voted  th'  ticket  an'  a  blame  soight 
better.  He  was  a  sojer  in  the  Civil  Warr,  an'  he  fit  as  bravely 
as  eny  man  thet  ever  shouldered  a  muskit.  He  is  a  foine  type 
of  an'  Oirish-American  an'  he'll  foight  now  at  th'  drohp  av  th' 
hat  aven  if  he  has  fer  to  dhrop  th'  hat  himself.  Oi  hev  th' 
honor,  Sorr,  to  prisint  th'  nairn  af  Mister  Pathrick  Daniel 
O'Connell,  wan  av  our  lading  eonthractors.  Oi  tank  yez,  Mis- 
ter Cheerman  an'  gintilmin,  fer  this  oppertunity  yez  hev 
given  me  fer  to  spake  fer  th'  Oirish." 

Having  thus  freed  his  mind  Mr.  O'Hara  resumed  his  seat 
relighted  his  perfecto  and  seemingly  enjoyed  its  fragrance. 
The  chairman  at  this  juncture  was  visibly  nervous,  and  was 
fearful  that  representatives  from  Hungary  and  Italy  and  a 
few  other  countries  would  follow  the  lead  of  Messrs.  Detweil- 
ler  and  O'Hara,  and  so  calling  a  member  of  the  conference  to 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  HEZEKIAH  JONES. 


take  the  chair,  he  took  the  floor  for  the  situation  was  becom- 
ing more  and  more  acute  and  a  crisis  was  imminent.  He  saw 
the  urgent  necessity  of  making  a  speech  which  would  in  his 
judgment  harmonize  the  discordant  elements  whose  represen- 
tatives had  spoken  with  more  point  and  force  than  eloquence. 
The  situation  was  not  a  pleasant  one  to  contemplate. 

"Mr.  Chairman,"  said  he  with  compelling  unction,  "I  re- 
gret the  necessity  which  makes  it  incumbent  upon  me.  to  ex- 
plain to  this  conference  of  intelligent  and  progressive  Amer- 
ican gentlemen-citizens-voters,  why  the  Republican  organiza- 
tion of  this  state  has  not  in  past  years  nominated  men 
for  higher  office  who  were  of  German,  Irish  or  other  alien 
blood.  The  Republican  party,  I  am  glad  to  be  able  to  say, 
makes  no  distinction  of  race  in  the  selection  of  the  men  it 
calls  upon  to  serve  it,  and  to  lead  it  to  victory.  It  knows  no 
German,  or  Irish,  or  Italian,  or  other  racial  varieties.  And  in 
choosing  its  leaders  to  fight  its  battles  it  only  wants  to  know 
—first,  that  they  are  good  Americans,  and,  second,  that  they 
are  loyal  Republicans.  These  are  the  supreme  tests,  gentle- 
men. The  German  or  the  Irish  or  men  of  any  other  race  who 
cast  their  lot  with  us  in  America  are  American  citizens,  and 
the  moment  they  take  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  Constitu- 
tion and  the  flag  they  are  nu  longer  German,  Irish  or 
Italian,  but  sovereign  American  citizens  (applause  long  con- 
tinued) possessing  all  the  rights,  privilages  and  immunities 
which  that  citizenship  confers. 

"I  hope,  gentlemen,  that  we  will  hear  no  more  of  this  talk 
about  nationalities  in  this  or  in  any  future  conference  of  Re- 
publicans of  this  city  and  county.  If  no  German,  or  Irishman, 
or  Italian,  heretofore  has  been  nominated  it  was  because  they 
have  based  their  claims  to  such  recognition  upon  the  ground 
of  their  nationality.  This  is  neither  Germany,  Ireland  nor 
Italy,  but  the  United  States  of  America,  free  and  independent, 
where  every  man  is  a  king  and  every  woman  a  queen. 

"Speaking  for  myself,  candidly  and  freely,  I  will  say 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  HEZEKIAH  JONES. 

that  if  this  conference  in  its  wisdom  should  name  either  of  the 
gentlemen  who  have  spoken  here  tonight — Mr.  Detweiller,  one 
of  our  oldest  and  most  respected  citizens,  a  man  whose  char- 
acter is  above  reproach,  whose  life  is  an  open  book  and  whose 
record  as  a  business  man  and  a  private  citizen  is  as  clean  as 
a  hound 's  tooth ;  or  even  our  young  and  brilliant  and  witty 
friend,  Mr.  O'Hara,  whom  I  have  known  for  many  years  as 
an  earnest,  industrious  and  intelligent  young  gentleman  with 
a  brilliant  future  before  him,  I  would  take  off  my  coat  un- 
loose my  purse  strings  and  work  as  hard  for  the  election  of 
either  or  both  of  them,  and  harder  than  I  would  for  some  who 
might  be  named  who  are  to  the  manor  born. 

"I  have  a  strain  of  German  and  Irish  blood  in  my  veins, 
for  my  grandfather  was  German  and  my  grandmother  was 
Irish.  But  my  German  and  Irish  blood  must  ever  be  subordi- 
nate to  my  American  blood.  We  are  all  one  people,  one  na- 
tion with  one  common  destiny  and  hope  for  the  triumph  of 
American  genius  and  ideals  in  the  struggle  for  the  mastery 
among  the  governments  of  the  world."  Uproarious  applause 
followed  this  outburst  of  impassioned  eloquence  and  the  chair 
resumed  the  gavel  and  awaited  the  further  pleasure  of  the 
conference. 

Messrs.  Detweiller  and  O'Hara,  who  were  in  truth  only 
ordinary  men  of  mediocre  ability,  were  overwhelmed  by  the 
diplomatic  and  crafty  speech  of  the  chairman.  His  flattery  and 
sophistry  and  his  cleverness  as  a  literary  cabinet-ma&er  made 
them  really  forget  that  they  were  naturalized  Americans  and 
they  fell  into  the  trap  which  he  had  cunningly  set  for  them. 


THE  AWAKENING*  OF  HEZEKIAH  JONES. 

CHAPTER  HI. 

The  conference  was  unanimously  of  the  opinion  that  Dr. 
Hedges  would  be  the  logical  nominee  of  the  party  to  head  the 
ticket.  He  was  not  only  popular,  but  he  was  a  liberal  spender, 
and,  if  nominated,  he  would  make  a  generous  contribution  to< 
the  campaign  fund,  which  would  assist  other  nominees  on  the 
ticket  to  win. 

Accordingly,  the  conference  was  polled  to  ascertain  how 
each  member  of  it  stood  on  this  important  question,  and  how 
he  felt.  Of  the  thirty-five  or  thirty-six  gentlemen  present,  all 
except  one  voted  in  favor  of  endorsing  to  the  organization  for 
its  acceptance  as  the  choice  of  the  Republican  leaders  as  its 
candidate  for  Mayor,  Dr.  W.  H.  Hedges.  Having  thus  ascer- 
tained the  sentiment  of  the  conference,  the  meeting,  a  few  min- 
utes thereafter  adjourned,  and  the  chairman,  requested  all  of 
the  members  of  the  executive  committee  to  remain  after  ad,- 
jourmnent. 

The  other  confreres  passed  out,  and  the  executive  com- 
mittee was  called  to  order  and  proceeded  to  the  transaction 
of  business,  i.  e.,  to  make  up  a  slate  for  the  primaries,  twenty 
days  hence. 

The  work  was  soon  over;  three  or  four  local  leaders  were 
selected  for  aldermanic  honors,  among,  them  our  friends 
Detweiller  and  O'Hara;  a  candidate  for  coroner,  two  justices 
of  the  peace  and  other  necessary  local  officers  made  up  the 
ticket  to  be  ratified  and  endorsed  at  a  regular  meeting  of  the 
organization,  and  in  turn  to  be  voted  for  at  the  forthcoming 
primaries.  This  over  the  meeting  resolved  intself  into  an  in- 
formal gathering;  cigars  were  passed  around  and  liquid  re- 
freshments flowed  copiously  until  the  wee  sma'  hours.  Messrs. 
Detweiller,  O'Hara  and  the  chairman  of  the  committee  were 
as  chummy  as  lovers,  and  at  a  private  table  where  Scotch  and 
Pilsener,  and  Perfectos  were  plentiful,  they  figured  out  the 
Irish  and  German  vote  to  a  mathematical  nicety,  and  when 
the  city  chairman  said  good  night  to  his  hyphenated  citizen- 

10 


THE  AWAKENING  OP  HEZEJQAH  JONES. 

chums,  he,  like  the  Count  of  Monte  Cristo,  after  he  began  to 
pay  scores,  said:  "One!"  and  swallowed  a  Scotch  highball 
that  the  waiter  had  prepared  for  him. 

Then  he  put  on  his  Fedora,  lighted  a  Perfecto  and  was  driven 
to  his  home  in  the  suburbs. 

The  next  evening  at  the  Commercial  Club,  Colonel  J.  M. 
Saxe,  an  old-line  Republican,  who  had  fought  gallantly  in  the 
Civil  War  with  a  regiment  of  Negro  soldiers  about  whose  brav- 
ery and  courage  he  always  spoke  in  fulsome  phrase,  said  to 
the  city  chairman,  with  whom  he  was  sitting  on  a  big  settee : 

"Don't  you  think  we  ought  to  do  something  handsome  for 
Hezekiah?  I  attended  the  mass  meeting,  which  he  called  here 
a  few  nights  ago,  and  I  was  never  more  pleased  and  surprised 
than  I  was  to  see  so  much  enthusiasm  displayed  by  these  black 
people,  and  so  many  of  them  present.  The  hall,  a  fairly  large 
one,  was  packed  almost  to  suffocation,  and  Hezekiah,  who 
wields  a  powerful  influence  over  his  people,  was  in  his  glory. 
He  made  a  capital  speech,  an,d  it  was  cheered  vociferously.  It 
was  really  good  to  be  among  suck  a  whole-hearted  group  of 
optimists  as  these  black  people  are.  They  take  their  politics 
as  seriously  as  they  do  their  religion.  I  am  convinced  from 
what  I  saw  and  heard  at  Hezekiah 's  meeting  that  the  party  in 
the  city  and  county  has  no  more  earnest  nor  loyal  supporters 
than  these  black  men.  We  certainly  ought  to  recognize  their 
leader.  This  would  be  a  tactical  stroke  and  the  effect  of  it 
would  be  to  fasten  these  people  to  us  with  hooks  of  steel." 

"I  agree  with  you,  John,"  replied  the  chairman,  "that  we 
ought  to  do  something  to  hold  these  people  with  us,  but  I 
doubt  the  wisdom  of  recognizing  them  outright  in  a  political 
way.  Hez,  as  you  well  say,  does  wield  a  powerful  influence 
over  these  darkies,  and  we  certainly  should  take  care  of  him. 
However,  I  don't  want  to  begin,  the  practice  of  appointing 
Negroes  to  political  jobs,  or  of  encouraging  them  to  run  for 
office,  and  for  this  reason:  The  moment  we  white  people  let 
down  the  bars,  our  city  would  in  a  few  years  become  Africanr 

11 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  HEZEKIAH  JONES. 

ized.  Negroes  from  other  States  would  pour  into  it  and  in  time 
overwhelm  us  at  the  polls,  and  then,  where  would  we  be?  Have 
you  ever  looked  at  it  in  that  light,  John?" 

"Well,  no,"  replied  John;  "I  never  have.  I  see  the  force 
of  37our  argument  and  I  am  at  one  with  you  in  the  view  that  it 
would  neither  be  practical  nor  wise  to  give  the  Negro  import- 
ant political  positions  if  we  epect  to  continue  to  give  direction  to 
political  thought  and  policies  of  the  party  in  this  State,  but 
some  day  we  have  got  to  reckon  with  this  black  contingent. 
We  have  as  they  say  down  south,  got  to  tote  square  with  them, 
or  lose  their  votes  and  our  own  influence  as  a  political  organi- 
zation. " 

"Now,"  said  the  city  chairman,  "I  propose  to  recognize 
Hezekiah's  work  in  a  different  way.  Certainly  it  is  worth 
eighty  dollars  per  month  to  the  white  Republicans  of  this  town 
to  keep  Hezekiah  in  his  present  job  and  give  him  an  assistant 
(allowing  him  to  name  the  man).  This  will  give  him  all  the 
time  he  needs  to  circulate  among  his  people  and  do  missionary 
work  during  the  campaign  .  If,  of  course,  he  was  a  white 
man,  exerting  the  same  influence  and  controlling  the  same 
number  of  votes,  we  might  reward  him  with  the  nomination 
of  superintendent  of  streets,  which  carries  a  salary  of  $2,000 
per  year;  but  you  see  he  is  a  Negro,  John,  and  white  men,  as 
you  and  I  know,  will  not  stand  for  a  Negro  in  these  rural 
towns  in  an  elective  office  carrying  patronage.  We  have  got 
to  look  out  for  defections  in  our  own  ranks,  by  not  doing  any- 
thing to  drive  away  from  us  white  voters.  Hez  is  a  good  fel- 
low and  I  like  him.  He  is  a  useful  boy,  clever,  faithful  and 
remarkably  intelligent  for  a  Negro,  and  he  is  true.  But  as  I 
have  said,  he  is  a  Negro  and  his  color  is  against  him. 

"The  few  thousand  votes  he  controls  in  the  city  and  county 
are  assests  which  any  white  political  leader  would  be  proud 
to  possess.  It  is  really  wonderful,  John,  the  hold  this  darky 
has  upon  his  people." 

"Oh,  I  have  noticed  that  for  some  years,"  said  Colonel 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  HEZEKIAH  JONES. 

Saxe.  "There  is  something  about  these  black  leaders  that  I 
cannot  understand,  and  that  is  how  they  are  able  to  get  such 
a  grip  on  the  masses  of  their  people.  Most  of  these  black 
fellows  that  I  have  known  as  boy  and  man  seemed  to  have 
possessed  a  secret  power  which  gave  them  the  mastery  over 
the  rank  and  file  of  their  people.  When  I  was  in  the  army  and 
stationed  with  my  regiment  in  Virginia  I  had  an  opportunity  of 
studying  these  leaders  (and  the  old-time  Negroes  were  men, 
most  of  them,  at  least),  who  were  deeply  religious  and  truly 
in  earnest. 

"I  went  once  to  a  meeting  of  blacks  in  a  Baptist  church 
in  the  city  of  Richmond,  after  the  surrender  of  that  city  to  our 
forces,  and  I  will  never  forget  it  to  my  dying  day.  It  was  a 
sort  of  thanksgiving  service  gotten  up  by  these  black  people 
to  commemorate  their  deliverance  from  bondage.  The  chief 
spirit  of  the  movement  was  a  little  old  black  man  with  a  be- 
nignant countenance,  a  deep,  sonorous  voice  and  a  keen, 
piercing  eye,  that  seemed  to  look  through  you.  The  church 
was  one  of  the  largest,  if  not  the  largest,  in  the  city,  and  the 
identical  church  in  which  a  monster  meeting  was  held  by  the 
white  people  in  February,  1865,  when  Jefferson  Davis  and 
other  Southerners  denounced  Lincoln  and  expressed  confidence 
that  the  South  would  compel  the  Yankees  to  petition  for  peace. 

"As  I  had  nothing  else  to  do,  I  thought  I  would  go  and 
listen  to  the  speeches  and  the  singing — two  gifts  with  which 
the  Negro  has  been  signally  blessed.  I  reached  the  church 
about  7:30  and  found  a  large  and  enthusiastic  crowd  of  well 
dressed  Negro  men  and  women,  with  a  considerable  sprinkling 
of  white  persons  of  both  sexes,  gathered  there.  I  took  a  seat 
near  the  door.  (I  was  in  uniform  and  did  not  want  to  appear 
conspicious.)  Soon  one  of  the  church  officers,  who  knew  my 
name,  espied  me.  and  insisted  on  taking  me  up  front,  where  I 
could  see  and  hear  better.  I  didn't  want  to  go,  but  he  said  I 
must;  so  I  went  up  and  was  given  a  fine  seat  in  the  amen 
corner,  from  which  I  could  see  and  hear  everything  that  went 
on. 

13 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  HEZEKIAH  JONES. 

' '  It  was  well  I  went  up  front,  for  at  8 :30  every  available 
seat  in  the  church  was  filled,  and  in  the  wide  aisles  men,  wo- 
men and  children  occupied  benches,  chairs  and  camp  stools, 
while  against  the  walls,  on  three  sides  of  the  church,  people 
Were  standing  two  deep.  Promptly  at  8  :30  I  heard  in  a  splen- 
did baritone  voice  that  thrilled  me,  Tom  Moore's  hymn.  'The 
Song  of  Miriam': 

i Sound  the  loud  timbrel  o'er  Egypt's  dark  sea! 
Jehovah  has  triumphed !  His  people  are  free ! ' 
The  great  audience  took  up  the  melody  and  sang  as  I    have 
never  heard  any  people  sing  that  song  since.     There    was    a 
swing  to  the  music  that  transfixed  me,  and  I  was  heartily  sorry 
when  its  last  notes  died  away.    It  seems  to  me  that  I  hear  those 
Negroes  singing  that  hymn  now/' 

"The  Negroes,"  said  the  city  chairman,  "are  natural  musi- 
cians. Some  of  the  finest  singers  that  I  have  ever  listened  to 
in  my  life  have  been  Negroes.  When  I  was  in  Germany  four 
or  five  years  ago,  I  heard  a  great  Negro  tenor  sing,  who  could 
make  his  fortune  in  America,  with  a  good  manager,  if  he 
only  had  a  white  face,  but  he  was  a  genuine  black  and  as  hand- 
some in  face  and  as  perfect  in  physical  development  as  any 
man  I  ever  saw.  I  have  never  heard  such  a  voice  as  that 
Negro-  possessed. 

"Of  course,  you  know,  Colonel,"  the  city  chairman  con- 
tinued, "that  I  have  never  questioned  the  capacity  of  the 
Negro  for  sustained  effort  in  any  direction.  I  believe  that 
they  are  just  as  capable,  and  in  some  instances  more  so,  than 
many  of  us  whites,  but  they  are  a  minority  race  and  have  no 
fair  opportunity  for  the  exercise  of  their  native  and  acquired 
abilities  beyond  a  certain  point,  socially  there  is  a  Rubicon 
they  cannot  cross,  and  there's  a  reason.  I  fear  we  white  men 
are  not  quite  civilized  as  yet,  and  that  our  religion  is  a  hollow 
mockery  and  a  sham,  so  far  as  the  Negro  is  concerned,  we 
have  eliminated  him  from  the  equation.  We  accept  him  as 
a  man  after  a  form,  but  we  reject  him  as  a  brother,  and  our 

14 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  HEZEKIAH  JONES. 

prejudices  against  him  are  born  of  conditions,  upon  which  you 
and  I  know  rests  the  safety  and  security  of  the  Anglo-Saxon 
^civilization.  Self  preservation  demands  that  we  shall  rule. 
There  can  be  no  middle  ground.  The  moment  we  permit  sen- 
timent to  outweigh  our  judgment  as  to  what  is  best  for  us 
racially  and  nationally,  we  will  cease  to  be  the  governing  and 
dominant  race. 

' '  The  destiny  of  the  black  race  is  not  coordinate  with  that 
of  the  white  race.  The  two  races  cannot  cohere  socially  and 
preserve  their  racial  identity.  One  or  the  other  must  rule. 
Colonel,"  said  the  chairman  with  vigor,  "there  are  other 
aspects  to  which  I  need  not  advert.  I  think  you  understand 
me." 

"Oh,  yes,"  said  €olonel  Saxe,  "perfectly,  and  yet  I  am 
tempted  to  believe  that  if  we  continue  to  use  our  giant 
strength  to  keep  these  people  down,  or  any  people  entitled  to 
our  care  and  protection,  we,  or  our  children,  or  our  children's 
children  will  some  day  pay  the  penalty  with  compound  inter- 
est. Neither  Europe  nor  America  can  afford  to  oppress  weak- 
er peoples,  for  the  law  of  compensation  is  irrevocable,  and 
like  the  laws  of  the  Medes  and  the  Persians,  is  'without  shad- 
ow .or  variableness  of  turning. '  ' 

"Exactly  so,  John,"  said  the  chairman.  "I  believe  in 
the  law  of  compensation,  for  what  goes  up  most  come  down. 
That  is  the  irony  of  fate,  but  in  the  present  circumstances  I 
think  a  majority  of  the  Caucasian  race  is  willing  to  let  the 
future  settle  its  own  problems." 

"Well,"  said  Colonel  Saxe,  "it  is  going  to  be  a  bloody 
and  a  terrible  reckoning,  and  I  am  quite  in  agreement  with 
Thomas  Jefferson,  who  said:  "I  tremble  for  my  country  when 
I  remember  that  God  is  just." 

"Jefferson,  like  Tocqueville,"  answered  the  chairman, 
meditatively,  "was  a  prophet — a  seer.  I  often  think  of  that 
saying  of  Jefferson's,  which  you  have  just  quoted,  and  I  trem- 
ble  .a  little  myself  when  I  think  of  how  we  have  treated  the 

15 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  HEZEKIAH  JONES. 

Indian,  and  how  we  are  now  treating  the  Negro." 

"There  is  good  reason,"  said  Colonel  Saxe,  "why  we  all 
should  tremble.  I  declare  it  is  awful  to  think  of  our  injustices 
to  these  faithful,  lovable  and  loyal  black  people,  but  let  me 
finish  my  story." 

"Excuse  me,  John,"  said  the  chairman,  "for  interrupting, 
it.  I  hope  that  you  have  not  lost  the  thread." 

* '  Oh,  no, '  'he  replied,  *  *  not  at  all.  When  a  thing  has  once  been 
photographed  on  your  memory  it  remains  with  you  for  all 
time.  1  told  you  about  the  singing  of  those  Negroes  and  its 
electrical  effect  upon  me.  Well,  there  was  another  scene  equal- 
ly as  impressive,  following  this  part  of  these  interesting  exer- 
cises. I  think  I  also  mentioned  a  little  old  black  man. 
"Yes,  you  did." 

"Well,  after  that  great  hymn  of  Moore's  this  little  old 
man,  who  had  not  been  in  auditorium  while  the  audience  was 
assembling,  walked  upon  the  platform  from  a  little  room  off  on 
the  side  of  the  pulpit,  and,  advancing  to  the  old-fashioned 
pulpit  on  which  rested  a  huge  Bible,  he  stood  there  for  two  or 
three  seconds  engaged  in  prayer.  The  moment  he  closed  his 
eyes  every  voice  was  hushed  and  every  head  was  bowed.  Be- 
tween his  pauses  one  could  almost  hear  a  pin  drop.  Then,  in  a 
clear,  well  modulated  voice,  he  spoke  to  the  Master,  this  short 
but  meaningful  prayer: 

"  *0,  thou  infinite!  We  come  tonight  with  grateful  hearts 
to  offer  unto  Thee  our  thanks  for  thy  loving  kindness  and 
tender  mercies  shown  toward  us  in  days  past,  and  for  deliver- 
ing these,  thy  people,  from  the  yoke  of  bondage  as  Thou  didst 
promise  our  fathers  to  do.  Bless,  0,  God,  those  who  have 
wronged  us  and  give  us  the  spirit  of  charity  and  foregiveness 
and  the  patience  to  wait  on  Thee  for  the  fulfillment  of  all  thy 
promises  to  those  who  trust  in  Thy  Word.  Amen!' 

"There  was  no  vindictiveness  in  that  prayer.  It  was  a 
kindly,  charitable,  forgiving  utterance  from  the  representative 
of  a  race  which  had  every  reason  in  the  world  to  show  its- 

1C 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  HEZEKIAH  JONES. 

resentment  and  its  bitterness  of  feeling  toward  our  race.  But 
this  Negro  prayed  as  the  Scriptur-es  command  us  all  to  do  for 
those  who  have  despitefully  used  us.  Now,  my  friend,  how 
are  we  going  to  keep  down  people  like  these  who  show  such 
supreme  faith  and  confidence  in  God,  and  exercise  such  won- 
derful patience  in  waiting  on  Him?  It  cannot  be  done,  I  tell 
you !  These  black  people  are  a  spiritual  people,  and  I  believe 
in  my  heart  that  they  are  nearer  the  Almighty  than  any,  other 
race  on  earth. 

"Then,  too,  this  little,  old,  black  man  talked  to  these 
people  before  him  like  a  father  to  his  children.  He  spoke  to 
them  of  their  newly  won  freedom,  what  it  had  cost  the  nation 
in  blood  and  treasure  to  acquire  it  and  that  their  liberation 
from  bondage  was  merely  one  of  the  incidents  of  the  struggle, 
which  had  ended  in  the  overthrow  of  the  slave  power.  He 
told  them  that  it  was  God's  way  of  solving  the  problem,  which 
for  thirty  years  men  had  striven  to  solve  in  their  own  way,  and 
now  that  freedom  had  come  to  black  men,  he  warned 
them  to  guard  it  jealously  and  by  its  proper  exercise,  to  strive 
to  deserve  the  approval  and  continued  friendship,  not  only  of 
those  who  had  been  instrumental  in  bringing  it  about,  but 
those  who  had  fought  and  bled  that  they  might  be  retained  in 
slavery. 

"The  result,  he  explained  to  them,  was  inevitable,  for  it 
had  been  ordained  from  the  begining  that  this  people  should 
be  free.  Man  proposes  and  God  disposes.  The  liberation  of 
the  black  man  from  bondage  was  not  born  of  philanthropy,  nor 
of  a  love  of  justice,  but  of  political  necessity.  In  freeing  the 
black  man,  the  white  man  had  also  freed  himself,  and  he 
could  not  accomplish  the  one  without  the  other. 

"Thus  he  talked  upwards  of  thirty  minutes,  and  his  famil- 
arity  with  the  conditions  that  brought  on  the  war  and  of  the 
history  of  the  compromises  attempted  to  bring  it  to  an  end 
was  most  remarkable.  His  very  first  sentence  struck  me  so 
forcibly  that  1  resorted  to  my  limited  knowledge  of  short- 

17 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  HEZEKIAH  JONES. 

hand  and  took  down  as  best  I  could,  his  remarkable  address. 
He  clearly  understood  and  boldly  declared  that  emancipation 
was  neither  a  philanthropic  nor  an  humanitarian  act,  but  a 
war  necessity,  born  of  no  love  for  his  race,  but  of  the  uncon- 
querable desire  of  best  white  men  of  both  section  to  preserve 
the  union  as  it  was,  but  without  slavery.  He  told  his  hearers 
not  to  put  too  much  confidence  in  the  assertions  of  white 
men,  now  that  they  were  free,  that  they  were  the  equals  of 
the  white  men.  'Equality,'  he  said,  raising  his  voice  slightly, 
'is  not  obtained  by  gift,  but  by  struggle.  You  must  now  begin 
to  make  yourselves  worthy  of  your  new  position  in  the  body 
politic.  You  must  educate  yourselves  and  your  children  and 
build  up  character  for  yourselves  and  for  those  who  are  to 
come  after  you.' 

"When  the  little  old  man  sat  down,  one  of  the  deacons, 
who  was  as  black  as  the  speaker,  but  a  finer  specimen 
physically  than  he,  began  to  sing  a  hymn,  the  words  of 
which,  as  I  jotted  them  down,  were  as  follows : 

'Gome  saints  and  sinners,  hear  me  tell 
The  wonders  of  Immanuel, 
Who  snatched  me  from  a  burning  hell 
And  placed  my  soul  with  God  to  dwell, 
And  this  is  heavenly  union.' 

44  John,  I  thought  when  I  heard  those  Negroes  sing  Moore's 
hymn, '  Miriam, '  I  had  heard  some  singing,  but  I  pledge  you  my 
word  that  the  singing  of  this  Negro  melody  was  as  far  beyond 
it  in  volume  and  melody  as  grand  opera  is  beyond  a  popular 
song.  The  man  lined  out  this  grand  old  hymn,  singing  the 
first  two  lines  himself,  and  the  great  throng  of  Negroes  in  the 
audience,  every  one  of  whom  seemed  to  know  it,  took  it  up, 
and  sang  it  with  a  fervor  and  earnestness  that  I  never 
dreamed  it  was  possible  to  put  into  music.  John,  I'd  give  fifty 
dollars  gladly  if  it  were  possible  to  hear  that  hymn  sung  again 
as  I  heard  it  then. 

18 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  HEZEKIAH  JONES. 

"Well,  when  they  had  finished  singing,  the  little,  old 
black  man  stood  up  again  and,  raising  his  hand  to  command 
silence,  said:  *I  want  all  of  you  to  come  up  to  the  table  at  the 
close  of  the  service  and  give  something,  if  no  more  than  a 
penny,  toward  a  fund  for  building  a  school  house  for  our 
children,  the  men  and  women  of  tomorrow.  I  want  everybody 
here  to  give  something/ 

"Then,  while  the  choir  sang,  everybody,  men,  women  and 
children,  passed  up  one  aisle  and  down  another  to  their  seats, 
or  on  out  of  the  church  into  the  street.  I  do  not  think  there 
was  a  single  person  who  did  not  give  something.  The  man  at 
the  table  announced  when  the  last  person  had  passed  up  that 
the  amount  thus  far  given  was  $375.90.  A  little  girl  came  up 
afterwards  and  gave  ten  cents  more,  raising  the  evening's  con- 
tribution to  $376." 

"The  little,  old  man  came  down  from  the  platform  and 
holding  up  the  baskets  containing  the  money,  offered  a  brief 
prayer  of  thanks  and  afterwards  pronounced  the  benediction. 
And  then  the  meeting  was  over. 

"I  came  away  with  the  feeling  that  these  people — these 
black  people  ARE  a  peculiar  people  in  a  larger  sense  than  we 
understand  that  word,  and  I  could  not  help  repeating  the 
words  of  Amos  IX, — 7,  'Are  you  not  as  the  children  of  the 
Ethiopians  unto  me,  0,  children  of  Israel,'  etc.  They  are  a 
wonderful  people,  and  they  are  the  happiest  and  most  optimis- 
tic race  in  America  today.  White  men  treated  as  they  have 
been  and  are,  would  become  Anarchists.  They,  on  the  con- 
trary, pray  for  us  and  trust  in  God. 

"We  cannot,  I  tell  you,  permanently  keep  such  a  race 
down.  It  is  bound  to  rise  in  spite  of  us.  All  of  our  injustice 
to  it  will  be  cumulative  evidence  against  us  on  the  day  of 
reckoning  when  that  day  comes  (and  I  hope  I  may  not  live  to 
see  it.)  No  wonder  the  prophet  said,  'And  the  fathers  have 
eaten  sour  grapes  and  set  the  children's  teeth  on  edge/  I 
understand  the  full  import  of  those  words  better  now  than 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  HEZEKIAH  JONES. 

ever  for  I  think  and  believe  that  I  see  the  end  from  the  be- 
ginning. Our  strength  as  a  nation  is  our  greatest  weakness 
and  when  we  use  that  strength  to  oppress  and  suppress  any 
race,  reaching  out  for  larger  freedom  we  do  ourselves  and 
that  race  an  irreparable  injury  which  can  only  be  remedied  by 
the  lav-  of  compensation." 

It  was  now  nearly  two  a.  m.,  and  these  two  old  cronies 
were  as  fresh  and  chipper  as  though  it  was  just  7  :30.  The 
Colonel  ordered  a  whiskey  and  soda  for  himself  and  suggest- 
ed to  the  city  chairman  that  one  would  do  him  no  harm.  The 
chairman  was  agreeable  and  they  drank  in  silence  and  parted 
for  the  night,  or,  rather,  morning. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

The  city  chairman  ruminated  over  the  story  that  Col. 
John  Saxe  had  told  him  during  the  evening  and  once  or  twice 
during  the  ride  to  his  home  in  the  suburbs  he  said  to  himself, 
"We  white  men  cannot  allow  the  Negroes  to  have  equal  oppor- 
tunity. Negroes  were  born  to  be  ruled,  white  men  to  rule." 
But  the  chairman  had  not  read  his  history  aright. 

Just  before  leaving  the  club,  he  said  to  Mr.  Sanderson, 
another  member  of  the  club:  " Theodore,  I  want  to  see  you  in 
my  office  at  11  -.30  to-morrow  on  a  very  important  matter,  if 
that  hour  will  suit  your  convenience." 

"Very  well,  John,  I  will  come.  The  hour  will  be  quite 
agreeable,  and  I  will  be  prompt,  as  I  have  another  appoint- 
ment for  12:50." 

"0,  we  can  dispose  of  the  matter  I  want  to  talk  over  with 
you  in  twenty  minutes,"  said  the  city  chairman. 

"Good  night,  Theodore;  I  will  look  for  you."  And  as  he 
passed  out  to  enter  his  car  he  met  in  the  vestibule  two  other 
friends.  "Why,  hello,  Charley;  hello,  Fred,"  he  called  to 
them.  "Ain't  going  without  saying  'goodnight,'  are  you?" 

20 


THE  AWAKENING  OP  HEZEKIAH  JONES. 

lie  asked  laughing.    They  protested  they  had  not  seen  him. 

"Of  course  we  cannot  say  'good  night'  now,  'Cy,'  "  said 
the  one  addressed  as  Charley,  "but  we'll  come  around  tonight 
and  say  that.  We  can  now  bid  you  only  a  pleasant  'good 
morning.' 

"Drop  into  the  office  some  time  this  afternoon,"  said 
"Cy,"  "I  want  to  have  a  chat  with  you  fellows." 

"All  right,  Cy,"  they  replied  almost  in  unison.  "We'll  be 
around  about  two,  not  later  than  two-thirty.  S'long,  old 
man."  And  they  jumped  into  a  taxi  and  were  whirled  to 
their  bachelor  apartments. 

"Cy"  entered  his  big  car  and  headed  for  home,  breaking 
all  speed  regulations  for  it  was  early  morning  and  most  of  the 
cops  were  asleep. 

Mr.  Sanderson  kept  his  appointment  with  the  city  chair- 
man and  when  they  got  together  there  were  serious  matters 
discussed  in  the  thirty  minutes  the  conference  lasted.  In  some 
way  or  other  it  seems  the  speeches  of  Detweiller  and  O'Hara 
at  the  private  conference  got  out.  (Some  such  things  do 
leak  out),  and  the  echo  of  them  had  reached  Hezekiah  Jones 
through  one  of  his  trusted  lieutenants — a  waiter  at  a  club 
house  where  the  speeches  were  being  discussed  by  a  group  of 
members  over  their  coffee  and  cigars.  Some  of  the  conferres 
had  gone  directly  from  this  conference  to  their  club  where  they 
talked  over  the  happenings  of  the  conference  in  a  confiden- 
tial way  as  men  are  sometimes  wont  to  do. 

While  Mr.  Sanderson  and  the  city  chairman  were  engaged 
in  talking  in  the  latter's  office  the  telephone  rang.  Taking 
.down  the  receiver  the  chairman  asked  who  it  was  and  what  he 
wanted. 

"Is  this  Col.  Gibbons"  was  asked. 
"I  am  Col.  Gibbons.    Who  are  you?" 

"0,  hello,  'Cy'!"  came  back  the  answer.  "I  am  Paul 
Brainard." 

21 


THE  AWAKENING  OP  HEZEKIAH  JONES. 

"I  didn't  recognize  your  voice.  How  are  you,  Paul,  and 
what  can  I  do  for  you  ? ' ' 

"0,  nothing,  'Cy.'  I've  just  heard  a  rumor  on  the  street 
which  gives  me  some  concern  and  I  want  to  talk  to  you  about 
it.  How  long  are  you  going  to  be  in  your  office?" 

"I  will  be  here  until  four- thirty ." 

"All  right.    I  will  be  there  at  two  sharp." 

"Anything  serious?"  asked  Col.  Gibbons,  city  chairman. 

"Well,  that  depends  upon  the  point  of  view,  {Cy'," 
answered  Paul. 

"I'll  wait  for  you  here,  Paul.  Good-bye,"  said  the  city 
chairman,  hanging  up  the  receiver  and  resuming  his  chat  with 
Mr.  Sanderson. 

The  gist  of  their  conversation  was  that  the  speeches  of 
Detweiler  and  O'Hara  and  their  subsequent  selection  for 
places  on  the  ticket  was  going  to  create  a  rumpus  in  the  party 
and  alienate  the  large  Negro  vote  unless  something  was  done 
for  them. 

"If  these  speeches  are  repeated  and  the  Negroes  learn 
what  resulted  from  them — how  those  men  actually  forced  the 
conference  to  name  them — they'll  resent  it  at  the  polls  and 
defeat  our  ticket,"  said  Mr.  Sanderson. 

"This  interminable  race  question  is  a  nuisance.  I  wish 
there  wasn't  a  Negro  in  America,"  said  Mr.  Gibbons.  "I 
wonder  if  Paul  Brainard's  rumor  is  in  relation  to  this  matter. 
I  shouldn't  be  surprised  if  some  garrulous  fool  has  had  him- 
self interviewed  and  given  us  away.  Well,  Paul  will  be  here 
at  two  o  'clock  and  I  shall  learn  if  we  really  had  a  Judas  in  our 
recent  conference,"  mused  Col.  Gibbons,  city  chairman. 

"You  have  nothing  further  to  say  to  me,  Colonel?"  asked 
Mr.  Sanderson. 

"No,  I  don't  think  of  anything  else  just  now,  Mr.  San- 
derson. If  there  are  any  developments  I  will  call  you  up  at 
your  house." 

"Then  I'll  bid  you  good  day,  Colonel." 

22 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  HEZEKIAH  JONES. 

"Good  day,  Mr.  Sanderson/'  replied  the  Colonel  as  the 
latter  gracefully  withdrew. 

The  Democratic  paper  which  was  published  in  the  town 
and  put  on  the  street  for  sale  a  little  after  two  o'clock  each 
day  except  Sunday  was  out  a  little  before  one  o'clock  on  this 
particular  day  with  an  extra.  The  newsboys  were  crying  it  vig- 
orously on  the  streets  and  from  the  noise  they  were  making 
one  would  have  supposed  that  an  atrocious  murder  had  been 
committed,  or  that  half  of  the  town  had  been  destroyed  by 
fire.  The  paper  was  called  "The  Evening  Critic." 

This  day's  issue  was  principally  scare-head  lines  in  big 
black-face  type  on  the  front  page  with  an  editorial  double 
leaded  in  10-point  type.  The  news  item  on  the  first  page  pur- 
ported to  give  the  details  of  the  conference  called  by  Col.  Gib- 
bons, and  it  was  in  truth  a  most  faithful  record,  with,  of 
course,  some  extraneous  embellishments — reportorial  license — 
of  what  really  took  place  there.  Stress  was  laid  upon  the  fact 
that  representatives  of  the  German  and  Irish  races  had  called 
the  hand  of  the  Boss  and  forced  the  selection  of  a  member  of 
each  of  these  races  for  a  place  on  the  ticket. 

But,  there  was  not  a  single  representative  of  the  Negro 
race  invited  to  the  conference  and  no  Negro  named  for  any 
place  on  the  ticket,  not  even  for  janitor.  With  Democratic 
naivete  it  asked,  Where  was  Hezekiar  Jones,  the  Negro  Repub- 
lican wheel  horse,  and  what  will  he  think  or  say  when  he 
discovers  how  the  white  leaders  of  the  G.  0.  P.  have  com- 
pletely ignored  him  and  his  faithful  black  allies?"  etc.,  etc. 

The  editorial  was  of  the  same  general  tenor  with  the 
usual  unsolicited  advice  to  the  Negro  to  divide  their  votes  be- 
tween the  two  great  parties,  to  stop  following  the  Republican 
Ignus  Fatnus.  It  played  up  the  hypocrisy  of  the  local 
leaders,  exposed  the  hollowness  of  their  alleged  friendship  for 

23 


THE  AWAKENING  OP  HEZEKIAH  JONES. 

the  Negro,  praised  Detweiller  and  O'Hara  for  their  courage 
in  demanding  and  securing  merited  recognition  for  their  class 
and  said  Hezekiah  Jones  ought  to  have  been  among  the  con- 
freres and  asked  him  how  it  happened  that  so  good  and  useful 
and  influential  a  Republican  as  he  had  not  been  invited  to  this 
important  party  conference,  etc.,  etc.,  ad  nauseam. 

Colonel  Gibbons  called  a  newsboy  and  bought  a  paper. 
Going  back  into  his  office  he  sat  down  in  a  comfortable  rocker 
and  read  both  the  news  item  and  the  editorial.  His  face  flush- 
ed and  his  eyes  snapped  with  anger  as  he  read  the  indictment 
by  the  Democratic  organ.  As  he  sat  there  musing  and  trying 
to  figure  out  how  the  secret  got  out,  his  messenger  anounced 
Mr.  Paul  Brainard. 

1  'Oh,  come  right  in,  Paul,"  he  said  as  that  gentleman  ap- 
peared at  the  door  of  his  private  office.  "Sit  down,  old  man." 

Brainard  found  a  roomy  arm-chair,  and  sat  down.  He 
opened  his  cigar  case  filled  with  fragrant  Havanas  and  offered 
one  to  Colonel  Gibbons,  which  he  accepted  and  lighted.  Brain- 
ard lighted  one  himself. 

"Have  you  seen  to-day's  Critic?"  he  asked  Brainard, 
shoving  the  paper  which  he  held  in  his  hand  toward  him. 

"Yes,"  said  Brainard,  "I  bought  a  copy  on  my  way  down 
here.  It  is  about  this  matter  that  I  telephoned  you  today  and 
I  am  wondering  if  you  had  given  it  out." 

"Why  you  certainly  do  not  imagine  that  I  would  do 
such  a  thing  as  that,  Paul,"  retorted  the  Colonel  hotly. 

"No,"  said  Brainard,  "I  do  not,  to  be  frank  with  you. 
Yet,  I  was  inclined  to  think  that  if  you  did  not  give  it  out 
directly,  you  may  have  authorized  some  member  of  the  com- 
mittee to  make  a  statement,  and  that  he  had  overstepped  the 
bounds  and  said  too  much." 

"That  is  a  reasonable  and  proper  inference,  but  I  have 
not  authorized  any  one  to  mention  anything  that  occurred  at 
the  conference.  I  supposed  that  all  who  were  there  and  took 

24 


THE  AWAKENING  OP  HEZEKIAH  JONES. 

part  in  it  were  men  of  honor  and  therefore  incapable  of  divulg- 
ing to  outsiders  what  was  said  and  done,  Brainard." 

"Why,  who  could  it  have  been  that  gave  out  this  story, 
Colonel?"  asked  Brainard. 

"I  haven't  the  slightest  idea,"  he  replied.  "But  it  is  no 
use  to  grieve  after  the  milk  that  is  spilled.  The  damage  is 
done  and  we  must  make  the  best  of  it.  We  have  now  got  to 
move  heaven  and  earth  to  keep  those  darkies  in  line.  Between 
us,  Paul,  I  blame  that  Dutchman,  Detweiller,  and  that  Irish- 
man, O'Hara,  for  getting  us  into  this  mess.  They  raised  the 
race  issue,  and  race  issues  in  politics  are  always  to  be  avoided 
if  possible.  If  they  cannot  be  they  must  be  met  and  handled 
tactfully  and  diplomatically — just  as  we  handle  the  cranks, 
and  the  faddists  and  the  reformers  who  are  constantly  demand- 
ing something  out  of  the  ordinary — reaching  out  for  the  impos- 
sible and  asking  for  new  legislation  for  this,  that  and  the 
other.  Give  them  all  the  legislation  and  the  law  they  ask,  but 
be  sure  to  see  to  it  that  they  are  unconstitutional,  and  we  can 
always  get  their  votes. 

"If  these  darkies  get  it  into  their  wooly  heads  that  they 
ought  to  have  a  representative  on  the  ticket  because  the  Ger- 
mans and  the  Irish  have  each  a  representative,  ^e  will  have  to 
placate  them  in  some  way.  Now  that  the  nominations  are  made 
and  have  been  ratified  what  method  would  you  suggest  as  a 
way  out,  Brainard?" 

"Have  you  seen  Hezekiah  since  the  conference,  Cy?" 

"No,  I  have  not." 

"Have  you  heard  from  him  or  that  he  knows  anything 
about  this  matter,  and  what  has  been  done?" 

"No." 

"Then  suppose  we  send  for  him  and  have  a  heart-to-heart 
talk  with  him  about  this  matter?  What  do  you  say?" 

"Decidedly,  yes.  I  think  the  play  a  good  one,"  answered 
Colonel  Gibbons. 

"If,"  said  Brainard,  "Hezekiah  has  found  out  what  we're 

25 


THE  AWAKENING  OF.HEZEKIAH  JONES. 

up  to,  and  is  disposed  to  make  trouble  by  swinging  his  vote  to- 
the  Harris  crowd  it  will  put  all  of  us  in  bad,  for  with  the 
darky  vote  left  out  of  the  equation  we  shall  not  be  able  to 
elect  our  candidate  for  mayor.  Dr.  Hedges  and  the  other  local 
candidates  won't  have  a  look  in.  I  say  if  Hez  has  found  out 
what  we  are  up  to  we  will  have  to,  for  self-preservation,  try  to 
induce  him  to  take  an  appointive  office  with  a  salary  of  say, 
$1,500  or  $2,000,  in  which  we  can  put  a  white  man  as  a  deputy 
to  keep  an  eye  on  him  and  keep  him  straight. " 

"I  think  that  some  such  arrangement  would  satisfy  Heze- 
kiah  and  his  followers.  It  would  of  course  be  a  new  departure 
for  the  party  in  this  State  and  the  darkies  would  imagine 
that  the  millenium  is  approaching." 

"But  we  may  not  have  to  go  so  far,  Cy,"  said  Brainard. 
"We  will  hold  this  as  our  trump  card  and  play  it  strong  if 
Hezekiah  is  disposed  to  be  ugly." 

"Capital,  capital!"  said  Col.  Gibbons,  pouring  out  four 
fingers  of  the  juice  that  made  the  Saints  keep  the  faith.  "I'll 
telephone  Hez  at  once  and  have  him  meet  us  here  in  conference 
and  we  can  make  the  dicker  this  afternoon,  and  if  successful, 
as  I  know  it  will  be,  it  will  make  the  cold  chills  run  down  the 
back  of  that  little  Democratic  editor  who  is  trying  to  divide 
our  darkies." 

o   i         • 

CHAPTER  V. 

Hezekiah  was  accordingly  'phoned  at  the  bank  and  was 
requested  to  come  at  once  to  Gibbon's  office  to  a  conference. 
He  answered  that  he  would  come  at  once.  And  he  did.  In  fif- 
teen or  twenty  minutes  from  the  time  that  he  got  the  'phone 
message  Hezekiah  was  seated  with  Col.  Gibbons  and  Brainard 
in  the  latter 's  private  office. 

After  the  salutations  and  exchanges  of  a  few  common 
places  about  the  weather,  about  the  political  outlook,  the 
health  of  Mrs.  Jones,  about  which  the  Colonel  appeared  to  be 
extremely  solicitous,  Brainard  made  a  bluff  of  reaching  for  his 

26 


THE  AWAKENING  OP  HEZEKIAH  JONES. 

hat  and  coat  and  rising  as  if  about  to  go,  which  the  Colonel, 
observing,  checked  by  saying,  "You  need  not  go,  Brainard. 
We  are  all  friends,  and  I  am  sure  Hez  won't  object  to  your 
staying.  Besides,  we  shall  want  you  to  act  as  judge  in  the 
matter  about  which  Hez  and  I  are  going  to  talk  after  we  have 
all  had  some  refreshments  and  a  fresh  cigar. 

Well,  you  old  rascal,"  said  the  Colonel,  filling  his  own 
glass  and  passing  the  decanter  to  Hezekiah,  who  courteously 
transferred  it  to  Brainard,  "how  have  you  been  I  haven't 
seen  much  of  you  lately." 

"Oh,  I  keep  pretty  busy  these  days,  Colonel,  I  don't  have 
much  time  to  get  around  or  to  loaf.  We  are  pretty  busy  at 
the  bank  now,  as  you  know." 

"Yes,"  answered  the  Colonel,  "we  are  all  busy — busier 
than  we  will  be  two  years  hence  if  Bryan  is  elected.  By-the- 
way,  Hez,  I  was  very  sorry  I  couldn't  get  around  to  your 
mass  meeting.  Several  of  my  friends  were  there  and  they 
tell  me  it  was  a  rattling  good  meeting,  and  that  you.  had  a 
splendid  audience  and  that  you  made  one  of  the  best  speeches 
of  the  evening.  You  colored  folks  have  the  g?.ft  of  oratory." 

Hezekiah  was  tickled  at  this  compliment,  but  he  did  not 
give  any  outward  sign  of  the  pleasure  it  gave  him.  He  told 
the  Colonel  that  he,  too,  was  sorry  that  he  had  not  been  pre- 
sent as  he  was  sure  that  he  would  have  enjoyed  it  as  much 
as  the  other  white  friencis  who  came;  that  he  did  not  believe 
that  Bryan  would  get  a  single  vote  of  the  crowd  that  was 
there. 

"Yes,  I  heard  all  of  the  particulars.  One  of  my  friends, 
Major  Bostwick,  told  me  that  your  characterization  of  Mr. 
Bryan  as  the  'long-haired  faddist  and  dreamer*  was  vocifer- 
ously applauded." 

Hez  chuckled  and  said,  "Well,  Colonel,  that's  what  he  is, 
ain't  he?" 

"I  don't  know  but  what  you  are  right,  Hez"  said  the  Col- 
onel guardedly. 

27 


THE  AWAKENING  OP  HEZEKIAH  JONES. 

Brainard's  face  was  a  study.  It  seemed  to  question  the 
right  of  a  black  man  to  say  such  a  thing  about  a  white  man 
even  thought  he  is  a  Democrat.  What  effect,  thought  he,  would 
the  application  of  the  Bryan  financial  policies  to  the  govern- 
ment have  on  the  whole  Negro  race?  WThat  had  the  Negroes 
to  lose?  How  much  capital  had  they  invested  in  stocks  and 
bonds  and  commercial  enterprises  to  be  affected  by  this  threat- 
ened change  in  the  financial  scheme  of  the  government.  A 
cynical  smile  overcast  Brainard's  face  as  he  sat  gazing  at  the 
Negro  leader  and  sipping  his  whiskey. 

Then  with  mock  seriousness  he  said,  "Mr.  Jones,  I  have 
heard  several  of  my  friends  speak  of  your  splendid  speech  the 
other  night  and  I  have  several  times  felt  like  kicking  myself 
because  I  did  not  go  to  it.  Your  speech,  I  am  told, 
was  one  of  the  two  or  three  practical  speeches  delivered 
there." 

This  also  tickled  Hez's  vanity  immensely  and  in  reply  to 
Brainard,  whom  he  had  been  reading — African  fashion — he 
said :  '  *  Mr.  Brainard,  I  am  glad  to  learn  that  the  little  talk  I 
made  was  so  well  received  and  I  hope  it  will  do  good"  (and  as 
if  reading  the  thought,  then  passing  in  the  mind  of  his  flat- 
terer) he  continued:  "What  I  said  about  Mr.  Bryan  and  his 
policies  (perhaps  nostrums  is  a  better  word)  was  said  in  be- 
half of  your  arce,  not  mine.  Particularly,  the 
thought  was  not  original  with  me,  but  one  can 
not  put  quotation  marks  in  a  spoken  address.  It  is 
generally  asserted  by  business  men  opposed  to  Mr.  Bryan's 
views  on  the  money  question  that  if  they  could  be  put  into 
practice,  it  would  reduce  values  one  half,  cheapen  our  money 
and  cheapen  labor  as  well.  The  men  who  have  large  capital 
invested  in  stocks  and  other  securities  would  feel  keenly  any 
sudden  radical  change  in  the  present  monetary  system,  and  we 
who  have  to  make  our  bread  and  butter  by  working  for  you, 
would  feel  more  keenly  the  cut  in  our  wages;  hence  we  are  as 
much  opposed  to  the  scheme  of  the  long-haired  faddist  as  you 
are,  and  for  the  same  selfish  reason." 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  HEZEKIAH  JONES. 

" Bravo!  Hez,"  cried  the  Colonel.  "You  reason  like 
Cato." 

"It  is  difficult,"  says  Schiller,  "to  understand  men,  but 
still  harder  to  know  them  thoroughly."  After  having  passed 
through  the  ordeal  of  flattery  heaped  upon  him  by  the  super- 
serviceable  Brainard  and  of  hearing  himself  praised  in  fulsome 
phrase  by  the  crafty  and  artful  Col.  Gibbons,  and  listening  to 
his  Uriah  Heep  explanation  and  apology  for  his  remissness 
in  forwarding  to  him  the  invitation  to  the  conference,  Hez- 
ekiah  had  to  listen  once  more  to  the  Brainard  outgivings,  not 
more  sincere  than  those  he  had  previously  emitted.  Hezekiah 
had  just  assured  the  Colonel  that  he  accepted  in  the  spirit 
in  which  it  was  made  his  explanation  and  apology,  and  that  so 
far  as  he  was  concerned  the  incident  was  closed.  Here 
Brainard,  with  the  ineptness  of  his  peculiar  type  vouchsafed 
the  unsolicited  opinion  that  Hezekiah 's  attitude  in  the  cir- 
cumstance was  "magnificent  and  manly,"  whereat  he  sub- 
sided, after  slyly  winking  at  his  accomplished  accomplice  in 
duplicity,  and  double-dealing,  who  with  mock  seriousness  re- 
sumed the  thread  of  conversation  with  Hezekiah  and  ex- 
plained with  much  particularity  of  detail  the  circumstances 
which  had  brought  about  the  nomination  of  Detweiller  and 
O'Hara. 

He  told  Hezekiah,  with  tears  in  his  voice,  how  he  had  re- 
gretted that  the  race  issue  had  been  injected  into  the  cam- 
paign, and  said  that  since  it  had  been  raised  how  earnestly  he 
had  wished  he  had  been  present  at  the  conference  to  see 
that  his  race  might  have  been  represented  on  the  ticket  nomi- 
nated, or  rather  selected,  by  the  conference  for  submission 
and  approval  by  the  party  managers.  The  Colonel  said  all 
this  so  unctuously  and  with  such  evident  sincerity  that  Hez- 
ekiah almost  believed  it.  He  was  actually  on  the  point  of 
swallowing  it — bait,  hook  and  sinker — but,  as  he  looked  over 
in  the  direction  where  the  Colonel  sat  twirling  a  paper  cutter, 
he  observed  him  telegraphing  with  his  soulful  eyes  to  Brain- 

29 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  HEZEKIAH  JONES. 

ard.  It  was  only  the  work  of  a  second,  but,  Hezekiah  saw 
and  understood  it  all,  and  he  refused  to  swallow  the  bait,  al- 
though it  was  sugar-coated,  so  he  made  this  characteristic  reply 
to  the  Colonel,  the  significance  of  which  he  did  not  grasp,  "I 
see  you,  Colonel,  and  I  understand  you  perfectly.'7 

On  the  West  Coast  of  Africa  they  have  a  proverb  that 
runs  like  this:  "He  who  knows  a  matter  can  confuse  a  liar." 

"So,"  said  the  Colonel,  continuing,  "I  have  sent  for  you, 
Hezekiah,  to  talk  over  with  you  the  question  of  some  recogni- 
tion by  the  party  for  yourself  or  for  some  member  or  mem- 
bers of  your  race.  We  cannot  now  place  a  colored  man  on 
the  ticket,  tho'  I  would  be  delighted,  personally,  to  show  my 
interest  in  your  people,  by  doing  so.  You  see,  the  nomina- 
tions have  now  all  been  made  and  ratified,  but,  we  can  give  the 
colored  people  one  place,  perhaps  several;  or  we  can  compro- 
mise and  give  them  one  good  appointive  office  in  one  of  our 
city  departments,  and  two  or  three  janitorships.  There  is  the 
office  of  City  Weigher,  which  carries  a  salary  of  $1,500,  and 
that  of  Superintendent  of  Streets,  which  is  under  the  Mayor 
and  pays  $1,200,  but  I  do  not  imagine  that  any  of  your  fol- 
lowers are  qualified  to  hold  one  of  these  places,  so  that  we 
would  have  to  even  up  things  by  giving  you  a  number  of  small 
places  that  your  men  could  fill,  such  as  messengers,  laborers 
and  teamsters  and  street  cleaners." 

"Colonel,"  asked  Hezekiah,  "how  much  patronage  is 
your  organization  willing  to  accord  the  Negro  voters  You 
know  our  vote  is  the  balance  of  power  in  this  city  and 
county." 

"Yes,  I  am  aware  of  that.  The  Negro  vote  is  a  very 
potent  force  in  this  city  and  county,  and  I  am  sure  that  the 
organization  is  disposed,  or  will  be,  to  treat  your  people  fair- 
ly in  the  distribution  of  city  and  county  patronage  if  we  are 
successful  at  the  polls.  And  if  you  will  leave  this  matter  to 
me,  Hez,  you  may  rely  on  it  that  their  interest  will  be  fairly 
protected." 

30 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  HEXEKIAH  JONES. 


1  'Of  course,"  said  Hez,  "I  cannot  answer  off-hand  just 
what  we  will  do  about  this  matter.  You  know  we  have  our  or- 
ganization, just  as  you  have  yours,  and  we  have  some  bright 
young  men  in  it — college  graduates,  boys  who  have  been  to 
the  public  schools,  and  young  men  who  will  compare  favorably 
in  mental  ability  with  the  average  young  white  man — who 
feel  that,  advantage  for  advantage,  they  are  just  as  capable  as 
they.  Only  about  two  years  ago  a  young  man  came  up  here 
from  the  South  and  took  a  position  as  steward  of  the  Arragona 
Club.  He  had  been  a  teacher  in  a  Southern  College,  and  would 
very  probably  be  there  now  if  his  own  wishes  were  consulted, 
but  he  made  a  speech  on  Emanciptaion  Day  the  year  before  he 
came  here  which  aroused  the  indignation  of  the  white  peo- 
ple, although  what  he  said  was  the  truth,  and  they  would  not 
allow  him  to  remain  in  the  school  nor  in  the  town  where  the 
school  is.  He  was  instructor  in  mathematics  in  this  school  and 
I  have  been  told  by  those  who  know  of  him  that  he  is  a  man 
of  superior  education.  He  has  come  here  where,  he  believes, 
he  can  be  a  free  man,  even  if  he  has  to  do  menial  work. 

"Now,  1  reckon,"  said  Hez  naively — "indeed,  I  am  sure," 
he  went  on,  fixing  his  gaze  on  the  Colonel  and  Brainard,  who 
were  all  attention,  "I  reckon  this  man  could  hold  down  either 
one  of  those  positions  you  mentioned  a  few  minutes  ago,  or 
even  a  bigger  one." 


CHAPTER  VI. 

"Umph!"  said  the  Colonel,  reddening  perceptibly,  while 
Brainard  frowned  as  though  undergoing  some  severe  mental 
strain  in  an  effort  to  solve  an  insoluble  problem  foreign  to  the 
subject  under  discussion. 

Clearing  his  throat  and  lighting  a  fresh  cigar  he  tipped 
back  in  his  chair  and  sent  a  volume  of  smoke  under  Hez's 
nose  which  caused  him  to  remark:  "That's  a  pretty  good 
cigar,  Mr.  Brainard." 

SI 


THE  AWAKENING  OP  HEZEKIAH  JONES. 

Whereupon,  Brainard  drew  forth  his  cigar  case  and 
passed  it  over  to  Hez,  saying,  ' '  Help  yourself. ' ' 

"Now,  Mr.  Jones,"  said  Brainard  after  Hez  had  lighted 
his  Havana,  "don't  you  think  it  would  be  a  wiser  policy  for 
the  organization  to  recognize  fifteen  or  eighteen  colored  men 
by  giving  them  small  places  paying  them  from  $35  to  $50  per 
month  than  to  give  one  colored  man  a  job  at  a  salary  of 
$1,500  to  $2,000?  Wouldn't  your  race  be  better  satisfied  with 
those  appointments  than  they  would  be  with  a  single  ap- 
pointment carrying  a  large  salary,  and  wouldn't  the  appoint- 
ment of  a  colored  man  to  a  big  job  be  likely  to  excite  enmities 
and  jealousies  in  the  rank  and  file  and  thus  promote  discord 
and  dissatisfaction  among  your  people?" 

Brainard  having  put  his  question  sat  back  with  a  smile  of 
triumph  on  his  face  in  the  comfortable  wicker  arm  chair  with 
one  leg  thrown  over  an  arm  and  awaited  the  answer. 

"Well,  Mr.  Brainard,"  said  Hez,  "you  have  asked  me 
several  questions  and  I  will  try  to  answer  them.  As  to  the 
wisdom  of  giving  small  positions  to  my  race  as  rewards  for 
party  service,  I  may  say  that  that  depends  on  the  point  of  view. 
I  see  no  reason,  since  you  and  the  Colonel  concede  that  the 
Negro  is  the  balance  of  power  in  the  city  and  county,  why  he 
should  not  be  the  preferred  creditor  after  he  has  delivered 
the  goods,  and,  as  you  both  know,  he  has  done  this  at  every 
election  here  in  the  past  dozen  or  more  years.  He  is  fairly 
entitled  10  an  equal  share  of  the  large  as  well  as  the  smaller 
places — not  because  he  is  a  black  man  and  a  Republican,  but 
because  he  is  a  MAN  and  a  Republican  voter  and  competent 
to  fill  the  positions  he  seeks.  I  should  say  that  it  would  be  a 
fair  proposition  to  offer  the  Negro  voters  one  of  these  larger 
places  and  his  pro  rata  share  of  the  small  ones.  Such  action 
on  the  part  of  the  organization,  Mr.  Brainard,  would  heighten 
the  respect  of  the  Negro  for  the  Republican  party  and  go  a 
long  way  toward  convincing  the  great  mass  of  them  that  its 
professions  of  interest  and  friendship  for  the  Negro  as  ex- 

32 


THE  AWAKENING  OP  HEZEKIAH  JONES. 

pressed  by  our  party  platforms  are  after  all  more  than  plati- 
tudes coined  to  catch  our  votes  and  lull  us  to  sleep  after  we 
have  won  victories  for  it  in  close  States  and  put  the  party  on 
the  map  where  all  the  world  can  see  it. 

"I  think  this  covers  all  your  questions,  sir.  All  of  them 
are  of  the  same  nature,  though  differently  phrased." 

The  Colonel  and  Brainard  looked  a  trifle  obfuscated. 
They  had  not  expected  such  a  critical  and  analytical  answer 
to  their  trick  questions.  Clearly  it  wasn't  what  they  wanted 
or  expected.  It  was  not  encouraging  nor  satisfying.  If  Hez 
should  insist  on  the  appointment  of  one  of  his  followers  to  one 
of  the  higher  salaried  places  it  would  create  a  very  ticklish 
situation. 

"Well,  Hez,"  said  the  Colonel,  "we  wanted  you  to  say 
what  you  think  and  you  have  said  it  forcibly  and  well,  but  I 
do  not  believe  you  will  adhere  to  all  that  you  have  so  well 
and  properly  said  after  you  have  had  time  to  reflect  upon  it. 
You,  of  course,  understand  as  well  as  we  whites,  that  the  time 
isn't  ripe  for  placing  colored  men  in  these  higher  offices  in  the 
North.  It  is  an  experiment  which  has  not  yet  been  tried,  at 
least,  in  this  part  of  the  North. 

"Then,"  said  Hez,  "that  is  a  greater  reason  why  it 
should  be  tried.  Northern  men  have  encouraged  us  in  the 
Southern  States  to  aspire  for  public  office.  They  have  told 
us  that  if  we  get  education  and  character  we  would  be  eligible 
to  any  position  which  whites  of  equal  ability,  or  less,  are 
given  by  appointment,  or  the  votes  of  the  people.  I  believe 
our  Southern  professor  knows  as  much  about  the  routine  of 
office  work  as  any  white  men  the  organization  will  name,  and 
for  this  reason  I  think  he  should  be  given  a  chance  to  show 
what  is  in  him.  Of  course  I  merely  speak  for  myself. 
I  cannot  say  what  our  organization  will  decided  upon 
after  I  report  to  it  the  result  of  our  conference  today,  but  I  al- 
ways vote  with  the  majority,  Colonel  as  you  know." 

"Yes,  yes,  I  understand,  Hez,"  he  answered,  sorrowfully. 

33 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  HEZEKIAH  JONES. 

"Well,  we  can  go  no  further,  then,  until  we  hear  from  your 
organization. ' ' 

"Exactly  so;  I  am  only  its  servant.  I  cannot  speak  for 
it  in  these  more  important  matters  without  its  expressed  au- 
thority. And  now,  gentlemen/*  said  Hez,  bowing  first  to  the 
Colonel,  next  to  Brainard,  "I  must  be  leaving.  I  have  remain- 
ed  much  longer  than  I  had  anticipated,  but  that  is  what  a 
chap  gets  for  mixing  in  exceptionally  good  company,"  he 
said  with  a  meaningful  little  laugh  which  concealed  more 
than  it  revealed.  "I  have  enjoyed  every  moment  of  my  visit, 
Colonel.  I  have  been  greatly  benefited  by  what  I  have  heard 
and  learned  from  both  you  experienced  politicians.  Our  or- 
ganization will  have  a  meeting  on  Monday  night,  Colonel,  and 
on  Tuesday  morning  at  10  o'clock  you  will  know  exactly  what 
course  we  have  decided  to  follow.  Good  afternoon,  Colonel, 
and  to  you,  Mr.  Brainard."  He  stepped  toward  the  door, 
opened  it  and  disappeared. 

"I  say,  Colonel,"  said  Brainard,  two  minutes  after  Hez's 
departure,  "that's  a  pretty  shrewd  darkey — that  fellow." 

"I  guess  you  are  not  far  wrong,"  said  the  Colonel 
wearily,  pouring  out  four  fingers  of  old  Scotch. 

"I  felt  sure  that  he  would  bite  at  the  bait  you  threw  out 
with  the  minor  offices  attached,  but  he  avoided  it  as  cleverly 
and  as  skillfully  as  a  seasoned  politician.  Why,  down  where 
1  came  from  (Brainard  was  a  South  Carolinian)  a  darkey  poli- 
tician would  have  jumped  at  that  proposition,  and  his  club 
would  have  passed  a  set  of  resolutions  thanking  you  for  of- 
fering it." 

"But  he  avoided  it,  Brainard,"  said  the  chairman  reflec- 
tively, "and  that  brings  the  organization  nearer  to  the 
psychological  hiatus  when  it  must  declare  itself  either  for  or 
against  the  advancement  of  the  Negro  to  elective  and  ap- 
pointive offices  of  importance. 

"I  have  thought  much  about  this  phase  of  the  question, 
Brainard,  and  I  have  tried  my  d — dest  to  discourage  the  com- 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  HEZEKIAH  JONES. 

ing  of  any  more  Negroes  into  this  State.  Of  course,  they 
make  good  servants,  and  we  need  their  labor.  They  are 
tractable  and  loyal  as  domestics  and  are  easily  satisfied  and 
managed,  but  when  they  get  book-learning  in  their  heads  they 
become  unmanageable  and  are  uppish  and  sometimes  over- 
bearing." 

"These  literary  darkies  ought  all  of  them  to  be  colonized 
on  some  of  the  unoccupied  land  of  the  United  States.  They  are 
a  menace  to  our  servant  class,"  said  Brainard,  thinking  possi- 
bly of  Vesey's  insurrection  in  his  beloved  State  many  years 
ago  when  the  servant  class  under  his  (Vesey's)  direction 
made  a  bold  attempt  to  free  their  class  from  bondage,  only  to 
be  betrayed  by  a  traitor — Des  Verney. 

"These  darkies  with  a  smattering  of  education,"  went  on 
the  city  chairman,  "these  college  graduates,  put  foolish  no- 
tions into  the  heads  of  their  more  ignorant  brethren  and  they 
begin  to  have  visions  of  social  and  political  equality  and  de- 
signs on  big  offices.  Now,  if  we  begin  to  encourage  them  to 
hope  for  the  realization  of  their  dreams,  Brainard,  and  if 
they  insist  on  getting  their  pound  of  flesh,  the  defection  from 
the  party  will  be  astounding.  We  will  practically  have  no 
party  at  all. 

"I  admit  that  their  votes  under  our  present  system  give 
us  big  and  safe  majorities  and  that  we  can  always  count  on 
the  solid  darkey  vote.  Loyalty  is  its  one  redeeming  virtue. 
The  darkies  never  scratch  the  ticket.  I  have  often  wished 
that  our  white  voters  were  as  conscientious.  If  they  were,  we 
would  not  be  so  dependent  in  close  elections  on  this  darky 
vote  which  has  so  often  saved  us  from  defeat  in  State  and 
nation.  We  owe  these  people  some  gratitude  for  their  fidelity 
and  devotion,  and  I  for  one  am  willing  to  express  it  not  only 
in  words,  but  in  deeds.  But  I  am  unwilling  to  change  the  sys- 
tem under  which  the  party  in  this  State  has  existed  for  so 
many  years,  and  let  down  the  bars  to  permit  a  darkey  to  run 
for  an  elective  office." 

33 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  HEZEKIAH  JONES. 

4 'That  is  the  very  reason,"  said  Brainard,  "that  we  white 
men  in  South  Carolina  disfranchised  the  niggers.  You  know 
what  Kipling  says: 

'For  East  is  East,  and  West  is  West, 
And  never  the    twain  shall  meet.' 

Well,  we  of  the  South  have  slightly  paraphrased  it  thus — 'For 
white  is  white,  and  black  is  black,"  etc.  We  found  the  South- 
ern nigger  making  dangerous  inroads  politically,  education- 
ally and  industrially,  and  we  were  not  slow  to  see  that  if  left 
io  his  own  devices  in  our  beloved  Southland  he  would  soon 
be  a  dominant  factor  politically  and  industrially,  which  would 
mean  the  breaking  down  of  all  barriers  of  color  and  caste  with 
the  white  man  at  the  tail  end  of  the  procession. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

"From  a  moral  point  of  view  it  was  not  the  proper  thing 
for  us  to  have  done.  Still  we  checked  the  nigger  by  depriv- 
ing him  of  his  vote  and  getting  rid  of  some  of  their  dangerous 
leaders  as  an  example  to  the  timid  and  fearful  among  them. 
One  of  our  Southern  rhy rasters  summed  up  the  matter  in  this 
wise: 

'A  naught's  a  naught, 
A  figger's  a  figger, 
All  for  the  white  man 

And  nothing  for  the  nigger.'  ' 

Whereas,  both  of  them  laughed  immoderately  at  the 
brutal  wit  of  this  Southern  poet-laureate  of  the  mob. 

"But,"  said  the  city  chairman,  "we  cannot  inaugurate 
rach  a  method  of  elimination  here  in  the  North,  for  we  have 
gone  too  far  with  our  sentimentality  on  the  Negro  question. 
"We  have  made  these  people  feel  that  everything  in  the  realm 
of  political  possibilities  from  the  presidency  down  to  village 
dog-catcher,  may  be  theirs,  and  the  pathetic  thing  about  it  is 
that  they  believe  us." 

36 


THE  AWAKENING  OP  HEZEKIAH  JONES. 


"I  can  sympathize  as  a  white  man  with  the  white  man  of 
the  South,  and  I  do  not  condemn  too  severely  the  methods 
which  they  have  employed  to  save  their  civilization  from 
alien  hands  and  to  safeguard  the  traditions  of  our  proud  race. 
Brainard,  we  are  facing  a  tremendous  problem  in  America. 
This  Negro  question  is  of  greater  significance  than  the  wise 
statesmen  who  are  in  a  measure  responsible  for  its  existence 
in  its  present  delicate  and  aggravated  form  ever  dreamed  it 
would  be.  But,  we  have  got  to  face  it." 

"Yes,"  answered  Brainard,  "it  has  got  us  in  a  fix.  We 
are  really  in  a  muss.  If  we  begin,  as  it  now  seems  we  must,  to 
recognize  the  claims  of  the  darkies  to  political  preferment 
other  than  that  which  we  have  always,  in  a  small  way, 
granted  them  (and  their  claims  are  perfectly  just  and  reason- 
able) where  will  it  end?  These  people  do  not  seem  to  realize 
that  while  what  they  demand  is  lawful,  it  is  not  expedient, 
and  will  be  retroactive  if  carried  to  the  point  at  which  their 
badly  advised  leaders  aim. ' ' 

"I  think  I'll  go  and  hunt  up  Hez  tonight,"  said  Brainard, 
rising  and  placing  his  hand  on  the  city  chairman's  shoulder, 
"and  have  a  heart-to-heart  talk  with  him  and  try  to  make 
him  see  where  his  race  in  this  county  will  be  placed  indus- 
trially if  his  organization  insists  on  getting  one  of  the  big 
places;  and  that  such  a  demand  will  array  every  white  em- 
ployer of  Negro  labor  against  his  race  and  produce  a  decided 
slump  in  the  Negro  labor  market." 

That  night  Brainard  took  a  cab  and  called  at  Hezekiah's 
house.  His  wife  answered  the  ring  of  the  door  bell  and 
when  he  had  announced  his  name  and  told  her  the  nature  of 
his  errand  she  informed  him  that  her  husand  and  taken  the 
7 :15  Local  for  H . 

' '  Do  you  know  when  he  will  return  ? "  he  asked  somewhat 
anxiously. 

"He  will  return  late  on  Saturday  night  and  leave  very 

early  on  Sunday  morning  for  S ,  or  he  may  go  directly 

37 


THE  AWAKENING  OP  HEZEKJAH  JONES. 

from  H—    -  to  S ,  in  which  event  he  will  telegraph  me," 

said  Mrs.  Jones. 

4 'Too  bad  I  missed  him/'  said  Brainard  sorrowfully.  "Good 
night,  Mrs.  Jones." 

"Good  night,  sir.    Sorry  you  have  been  disappointed." 
"So  am  I,"  said  he  as  he  entered  the  cab  after  directing 
the  cabman  to  drive  him  to  82  Phillips  Street,  the  town  house 
of  the  city  chairman,  Col.  Gibbons. 

Arriving  there  in  about  twenty-five  minutes,  he  paid  the 
cabman,  ran  up  the  steps  rapidly  and  rang  the  bell.  Henry, 
the  uniformed  butler,  opened  the  door  and  admitted  him. 

"Hello,  Henry,"  he  said.    "Is  the  Colonel  in?" 

"Yes,  sir,"  replied  the  suave  Negro.  "He  is  entertain- 
ing some  gentlemen  in  the  smoking  room." 

"Tell  him  I  am  here,  Henry." 

Henry  announced  him  and  returned  with  the  message, 
"The  Colonel  says  'come  right  up,'  Mr.  Brainard." 

Brainard,  who  had  now  divested  himself  of  his  coat  and 
gloves,  followed  Henry  to  the  smoking-room  on  the  third 
floor  back  which  the  Colonel  called  his  "den."  The  walls  of 
the  room  were  hung  with  mementoes  of  the  chase,  signed 
photographs  of  his  personal  friends,  a  steel  engraving  of  Lin- 
coln, curiously  fashioned  pipes,  a  musket  used  by  one  of  his 
Revolutionary  ancestors,  a  collection  of  swords,  sabres,  dag- 
gers, and,  over  the  mantel,  the  head  of  a  deer  which  the 
Colonel  had  shot  on  one  of  his  hunting  trips  in  Maine.  A 
score  of  autograph  letters  from  presidents,  senators  and  for- 
eign dignitaries  completed  the  novel  and  interesting  collec- 
tion and  attested  the  popularity  of  the  distinguished  city 
chairman. 

As  Brainard  entered  the  room,  which  was  blue  with 
smoke,  the  Colonel  greeted  him  with,  "Why,  hello,  Brainard; 
come  in,  sit  down  and  have  a  cigar." 

Brainard  responded  promptly  to  all  these  requests  and 

38 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  HEZEKIAH  JONES. 

shaking  hands  with  the  Colonel  he  saw  through  the  fog  of 
cigar  smoke  many  gentlemen  whom  he  personally  knew  and 
greeted  them  cordially.  He  was  then  introduced  to  the  few 
whom  he  had  not  hitherto  had  the  privilege  of  meeting 
socially. 

After  this  formality  was  over  he  said,  addressing  no  one 
in  particular,  "This  looks  like  a  meeting  of  the  City  Com- 
mittee." 

"No,  not  exactly  that,  Brainard,"  said  Major  Dewees. 
"It's  just  a  little  conference  and  we  are  glad  you  came  in." 

"Yes,"  said  Col.  Gibbons,  "we  are  very  glad  you  have 
come,  Brainard,  for  when  Henry  announced  your  name  we 
were  discussing  how  we  could  placate  these  pestiferous  dar- 
kies in  our  midst." 

"Oh,  I  see,"  said  Brainard.  "Well,  I  have  been  on  a  lit- 
tle mission  myself,  but  my  plans  miscarried.  I've  been  hunt- 
ing Hezekiah.  Went  to  his  house  where  I  learned  that  he 
is  out  of  town." 

(Several  of  the  confreres  exchanged  glances  and  shook 
their  heads.) 

Contining,  Brainard  said:  "I  wanted  to  have  a  heart-to- 
heart  talk  with  Hezekiah  and  tell  him  a  few  things  and  I 
was  sorry  I  missed  him.  I  think  he  is  away  in  the  county 
putting  the  local  darkey  leaders  wise  to  the  fact  that  we  have 
consulted  him  about  patronage  for  his  race;  and  that  he  will 
urge  his  followers  to  stand  out  for  one  of  the  big  jobs  with 
the  power  of  selection  and  appointment." 

"I  haven't  any  doubt,  for  he  is  a  most  clever  darkey,  and 
he  has  the  vision  of  an  experienced  and  far-seeing  statesman." 

Henry,  the  butler,  happened  to  be  in  the  vicinity  of  the 
smoking  room  while  Brainard  was  speaking  and  overheard 
this  much  and  some  more  and  remembered  it. 

"Oh,"  said  Major  Dewees,  "we  could  not  think  of  giving 
a  Negro  one  of  those  high-salaried  positions.  Our  citizens 
of  all  parties  would  rise  up  in  revolt  against  us  if  we  did  such 

39 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  HEZEKIAH  JONES. 


a  thing.  It  is  preposterous  to  think  of  it.  Now,  I  ain  a 
friend  of  the  Negro  and  I  want  to  see  his  race  do  well,  but 
I  am  unalterably  opposed  to  members  of  his  race  holding 
white  men's  jobs.  You  were  saying,  Colonel,"  said  he,  ad- 
dressing Col.  Gibbons,  "when  Brainard  came  in  that  you  had 
made  a  proposition  to  Hezekiah.  What  was  it?" 

"I  propose,"  said  the  Colonel,  "to  apportion  fifteen  or 
twenty  minor  places  to  members  of  Hezekiah 's  organization, 
such  as  porters,  messengers,  watchmen  and  street-cleaners ;  and 
I  told  him  that  I  thought  that  this  arrangement  would  be 
better  and  more  satisfactory  to  the  rank  and  file  of  the 
Negroes  than  the  placing  of  one  of  their  race  in  some  big 
job  which  might  excite  enmities  and  jealousies  among  them 
and  possibly  disrupt  his  organization.  I  also  said  to  him  that 
there  would  be  two  places  at  the  Negroes'  disposal  neither  of 
which  I  thought  could  be  filled  by  a  colored  man,  as  in  my 
judgment  none  of  his  race  in  the  city  is  mentally  qualified  to 
hold  either  of  them. 

"Imagine  my  surprise,  gentlemen,  when  he  replied  to 
me  and  swept  away  all  my  objections  by  saying  that  his  peo- 
ple were,  as  the  statistics  show,  the  balance  of  power  in  this 
city  and  county,  and  should  be  treated  in  the  same  way  that 
the  other  elements  of  the  party  are  treated  in  the  disposition 
of  the  patronage  in  reward  for  party  service.  More  than  fif- 
teen hundred  of  them  are  property  owners  and  pay  taxes  for 
the  support  of  the  government.  The  remainder  rent  their 
homes  and  indirectly  are  also  tax-payers;  that  there  is  a 
tmember  of  his  organization — a  Yale  graduate,  recently  an  in- 
structor of  his  race  in  a  Southern  college  for  Negroes,  but  now 
a  steward  in  one  of  our  clubs,  who,  he  was  certain,  could  fill 
acceptably  either  of  these  offices." 

"Well,"  said  Mr.  Thornton,  who  had  been  an  attentive 
listener,  "the  situation  is  a  rather  ticklish  one  and  we  must 
handle  it  diplomatically.  The  colored  man  is  right  in  his  de- 
mand for  better  representation  in  the  matter  of  patronage,  for 

40 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  HEZEKIAH  JONES. 

we  cannot  go  around  the  fact  that  it  is  the  colored  vote  that 
gives  us  the  majorities.  If  they  divide  their  votes  or  scratch 
the  ticket,  or  even  refuse  to  vote,  it  would  greatly  embarass 
us  in  the  coming,  and  perhaps  future,  elections,  if  we  do  not 
do  something  to  counteract  their  vote. 

"It  seems  to  me  that  we  ought  as  a  measure  of  safety  for 
the  future  of  the  party,  gentlemen,  let  down  the  bars  and  let 
the  colored  man  in  to  one  of  these  larger  places,  provided,  of 
course,  there  is  one  of  his  race  sufficiently  qualified  to  fill  it." 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

"Oh!  no,  no,  no,"  exclaimed  several  voices  at  once. 

"That  will  never  do,  Mr.  Thornton/'  said  Major  Dewees, 
deferentially.  "I  must  confess  to  a  feeling  of  surprise  at  your 
wanting  to  place  the  darkies  on  a  plane  of  equality  with  our 
race  by  giving  them  positions  where  they  will  perforce  be 
brought  into  social  contract  with  our  wives  and  daughters 
who  may  have  occasion  to  visit  their  offices." 

Mr.  Thornton  smiled  and  asked  Major  Dewees,  who  was 
one  of  the  owners  of  a  big  department  store,  if  he  sold  goods 
to  Negro  customers. 

"Why,  of  course,"  was  the  answer.  "It  is  a  business 
enterprise  and  caters  to  the  general  public  regardless  of  race 
or  color." 

"So  is  a  public  office,"  said  Mr.  Thornton,  "a  business 
enterprise  in  which  all  the  people  are  interested.  A  colored 
woman  could  with  equal  reason  (which  is  really  no  reason  at 
all,  but  pure,  unadulterated  race  prejudice)  object  to  paying 
her  taxes  to  a  white  tax  collector,  or  his  clerk,  on  the  ground 
that  to  do  so  would  be  forcing  social  equality  upon  her.  Every 
shopkeeper  and  other  business  man  in  this  city  has  some 
business  relations  with  our  colored  citizens,  and  I  do  not  be- 
lieve that  because  of  these  relations  they  feel  as  you  do  about 
this  matter,  Major  Dewees,"  said  Mr.  Thornton  testily. 

41 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  HEZEKIAH  JONES. 

The  Major  subsided,  and  Brainard  ventured  to  say:  "Of 
course,  it  is  hard  for  these  people,  Mr.  Thornton  (he  wanted 
to  say  darkies,  but  he  realized  that  he  was  addressing  not  only 
a  gentleman  of  education  and  culture,  but  of  wealth  also),  "to 
understand  that  acquiescence  by  us  whites  in  their  preposter- 
ous demands  would  greatly  embarass  us.  It  would  bring  these 
Negro  officials  into  social  contact  with  white  men  and  women 
and  such  relations  would  not  be  conducive  to  the  establish- 
ment of  good  feeling  between  the  races. " 

'I  beg  your  pardon,  Mr.  Brainard/'  answered  Mr.  Thorn- 
ton, "but,  really,  I  do  not  follow  you.  I  am  unable  to  grasp 
your  meaning  or  to  understand  what  you  are  driving  at. 
Speaking  for  myself  and  for  my  family  I  may  say  that  neither 
I  nor  any  member  of  it  fears  the  bugaboo  of  social  equality; 
neither  are  we  afraid  nor  ashamed  to  treat  the  Negro  justly. 
That  is  all  he  asks  or  expects  from  his  white  brother  and  it  is 
as  little  as  any  of  us  can  do  to  treat  him  that  way.  I  am 
afraid  that  those  who  most  strenuously  object  to  social 
equality  with  the  Negro  have  had  most  to  do  with  the  pro- 
duction of  our  large  and  growing  population  of  mulattoes, 
quadroons  and  octoroons.  Its  presence  in  this  country  is  suffi- 
cient proof  that  the  objection  to  Negro  social  equality  was  not 
always  as  strong  and  bitter  as  it  now  seems  to  be." 

Brainard  reddened  to  his  ears  at  this  thrust.  Continuing, 
Mr.  Thornton  said:  "If  we  as  Republicans  do  not  mean  to 
treat  our  black  friends  squarely,  why  do  we  continue  to  ac- 
cept their  friendly  aid — their  votes.  We  admit  that  their 
vote  is  a  valuable  asset  and  ever  since  they  have  had  the  bal- 
lot we  have  used  them  to  keep  white  men  in  office  and  grudg- 
ingly awarded  them  the  most  menial  places  within  our  gift. 

"I  say  this  isn't  fair,  gentlemen.  It  isn't  honest,  and 
I  sincerely  hope  that  our  friend  Hezekiah  has  acquired  some 
practical  political  wisdom  and  will  use  it  to  his  own  and  his 
people's  advantage." 

There  was  a  buzz  in  the  room  when  Mr.  Thornton  took 

42 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  HEZEKIAH  JONES. 

his  seat.  Brainard's  face  was  still  red,  and  he  chewed  vig- 
orously the  end  of  his  cigar  and  tried  to  appear  calm,  but  his 
face  belied  his  feelings  for  he  was  genuinely  mad. 

Presently  Mr.  Thornton  left  the  meeting  to  go  to  another 
at  which  he  was  to  respond  to  the  toast,  "The  Republican 
Party/'  He  apologized  to  his  host  and  guests  for  having  to 
leave  so  abruptly.  His  host,  of  course,  understood  his  rea- 
sons for  going  and  thanked  him  for  lending  his  presence  at 
this  conference,  an  honor  which  he  said  he  would  long  re- 
member. 

Then  Mr.  Thornton  took  leave  of  this  company  of  two-by- 
four  politicians. 

After  he  had  left  the  room  Major  Dewees,  who  had  recov- 
ered from  the  solar  plexus  blow  he  had  received  from  him, 
irrigated  his  burning  aesophagus  with  four  fingers  of  Scotch, 
and  began  to  dry  it  again  by  lighting  a  fresh  Perfecto.  Tilt- 
ing himself  back  in  his  big  arm  chair  he  put  this  question  to 
Colonel  Gibbons: 

" Colonel,  how  much  is  Thornton  worth? " 

"I  really  cannot  say  definitely,  Major,  but  he  is  easily 
worth  $800,000  or  probably  $1,000,000.  He  owns  valuable 
coal  lands  in  "West  Virginia,  and  oil  lands  in  Oklahoma,  and 
I  think  he  has  a  big  block  of  New  York  Central  stock.  Cer- 
tainly, he  has  no  cause  to  worry  for  Dame  Fortune  has  been 
kind  to  him." 

"I  should  say  so/'  said  Major  Dewees.  "He's  a  remark- 
able man,  is  Thornton.  I  don't  agree  with  him  on  the  nigger 
question.  He's  too  liberal  in  his  views.  This  Negro  problem 
of  ours  is  the  biggest  thing  we  have  ever  tackled,  gentlemen/1 
addressing  his  colleagues,  at  the  same  time  relieving  the  de- 
canter of  three  or  four  ounces  more  of  old  Scotch  to  lighten 
its  weight.  "Yes,  gentlemen,"  said  the  Major,  "it's  a  big  pro- 
position, and  must  be  handled  carefully  and  cautiously,  for 
if  we  ever  make  a  false  step  we  shall  lose  our  grip  and  the 
Negro  will  get  on  top  and  push  us  down  and  out.  I  believe 

43 


THE  AWAKENING  OP  HEZEKIAH  JONES. 

in  keeping  all  we've  got,  and  in  getting  all  we  can,  but  I 
want  to  see  the  Negro  treated  fairly. 

"Of  course  I  have  always,  as  I  have  said,  been  his  friend, 
but  I  am  a  greater  friend  of  my  own  race.  Blood  is  thicker 
than  water.  I  do  not  believe  that  it  will  be  a  good  thing  to 
give  any  Negro  an  important  office.  I  think  it  would  be  the 
most  dangerous  thing  the  party  in  this  State  could  do.  I 
think  the  wiser  plan  would  be  to  give  them  the  smaller 
places  and  I  would  agree  to  give  one  or  two  of  them  clerk- 
ships, if  any  are  found  capable,  in  some  one  of  our  public  de- 
partments. This  would  satisfy  them  a  great  deal  more  than 
would  the  appointment  of  some  member  of  their  race  to  a 
big  office." 

Henry,  the  butler,  entered  the  room  as  the  Major  ceased 
speaking  bearing  a  tray  of  sandwiches  and  he  looked  like  the 
proverbial  heathen  Chinee.  He  sat  down  the  tray  and  left  the 
room  returning  in  a  few  minutes  with  a  dozen  bottles  of  cold 
Milwaukee  beer.  At  the  direction  of  his  employer  he  served 
each  gentleman  who  wished  to  satisfy  his  hunger  and  quench 
his  thirst  by  partaking  of  this  refreshment,  after  which  he 
left  the  room. 

Brainard  broke  the  silence  which  reigned  for  the  space  of 
sixty  seconds,  with:  "I  do  not  know,"  said  Brainard,  prefac- 
ing his  solution,  "how  our  people  would  feel  about  the  appoint- 
ment of  a  Negro  to  a  representative  position,  but  I  think  they 
would  resent  our  action  in  some  future  election  by  turning 
the  government  of  the  city  and  county  over  to  the  Democrats 
and  relegating  all  of  us  to  the  limbo  of  private  life.  And  we 
could  not  blame  them  if  they  did  this  for  the  ideas  which 
have  been  advanced  by  some  gentlemen  in  this  gathering  are 
preposterous  and  out  of  harmony  with  the  best  traditions  of 
our  race." 

Mr.  Brainard 's  line  of  argument  soon  won  over  the  ma- 
jority of  his  hearers,  for  it  was  in  the  nature  of  an  appeal  to 
their  race  pride  and  they  liked  to  feel  the  touch  of  superiority ; 

44 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  HEZEKIAH  JONES. 

and  that  their  race  was  born  to  the  purple  and  destined  to 
rule,  especially  all  races  not  colored  like  their  own.  But,  evi- 
dently, they  were  not  all  of  them  students  of  history,  other- 
wise they  would  not  have  been  so  unanimous  in  their  opinions 
as  to  its  supremacy  as  voiced  by  the  cunning  and  crafty 
Brainard.  Had  they  refreshed  their  memories  a  little  by  re- 
verting to  the  history  of  their  race  they  would  have  read  this 
little  scrap  of  history  which  is  a  faithful  account  as  recorded 
by  Oscar  Ameringer  in  his  "Little  History  for  Big  Children," 
which  is  more  than  a  little  history  because  it  is  very  much. 

He  says,  speaking  of  the  early  settlers  of  America,  the  for- 
bears of  the  present  inhabitants  of  this  country:  "Another 
class  of  involuntary  immigrants  were  the  criminals  and  pros- 
titutes sent  over  by  the  English  authorities.  But  these  people 
either  died  on  the  passage  over  or  soon  after  landing,  for  I 
have  never  heard  of  a  single  man  whose  ancestors  were  con- 
demned to  emigrate.  Whenever  a  ship  load  of  emigrants  was 
landed  the  buyers  of  white  slaves  flocked  to  the  harbor  to 
pick  out  bargains.  Sometimes,  not  all  could  be  disposed  of 
m  the  seaport  so  the  remainder  were  turned  over  to  agents 
who  chained  them  together  and  peddled  them  from  one  town 
to  another. " 

If  these  exclusive  and  discriminating  gentlemen,  legislat- 
ing to  exclude  the  Negro  from  practical  participation  in  party 
politics,  had  been  as  familiar  with  the  story  of  the  early  set- 
tlement of  Louisiana,  as  told  in  Monon  Lescaut  as  they,  per- 
haps, were  with  the  history  of  reconstruction  in  the  South, 
they  would,  doubtless,  not  have  been  so  chesty  and  so  insis- 
tent in  their  efforts  to  exclude  the  Negro,  after  using  his  vote; 
to  get  the  power  they  were  now  attempting  to  exercise  in  an 
underhand  way. 

Brainard  repeated  himself,  saying  again:  "I  have  the  solu- 
tion of  this  problem,  gentlemen,  and  it  is  this:  that  every  em- 
ployer of  Negro  labor  in  this  city  and  county  be  circularized 
and  asked  to  get  rid  of  their  Negro  servants  and  to  replace 

45 


THE  AWAKENING  OP  HEZEKIAH  JONES. 


them  with  white  servants.  This  will  eliminate  the  Negro  as 
a  political  factor,  and  bring  their  leaders  to  such  terms  as  we, 
not  they,  propose.  "We  can  here  draft  a  confidential  circular 
letter  outlining  the  dangers  which  threaten  us — the  menace 
of  Negro  domination — typewrite  it  for  the  printer.  If  Hez 
and  his  Yale  graduate  insist  on  their  pound  of  flesh  when  their 
organization  returns  its  answer  to  the  Colonel  here  on  Tues- 
day, if  the  darkies  are  obstreperous,  the  Colonel  can  show 
Hez  this  letter  and  there  will  probably  be  a  called  meeting  of 
the  black  brethren  on  Wednesday  night  to  reconsider  their 
action,  assuming  that  they  have  acted  along  the  lines  which 
Hez's  talk  with  the  Colonel  and  myself  lead  us  to  believe  they 
have  done. 

"I  don't  believe  we  will  have  to  print  a  single  copy  of 
the  letter  other  than  the  typewritten  copy.  The  Negro  is 
easily  bluffed  and  when  Hez  is  made  to  see  that  hundreds  of 
his  race  will  lose  their  situations  in  private  families  and  in 
clubs  and  stores  throughout  the  city  and  county,  he  will  not 
be  willing,  if  he  is  as  wise  as  I  think  he  is,  to  make  the  sacri- 
fice for  one  Yale  graduate.  He  will  gladly  compromise  by  ac- 
cepting the  Colonel's  proposal  to  take  care  of  fifteen  or  twenty 
members  of  his  organization  in  the  smaller  positions." 

"  Capital,  capital,  Brainard!"  they  all  said  in  chorus. 
"  You  write  the  letter,  Paul.  Mark  it  confidential  and  mail  it  to 
me  and  I  will  pull  the  wool  over  this  colored  gentleman's 
eyes  as  I  did  in  the  matter  of  the  invitation  to  the  conference 
at  the  club  some  weeks  ago.  You  remember  that  little  trick, 
Paul." 

"Do  I!  It  was  as  much  as  I  could  do  to  keep  from  laughing 
outright  while  you  were  smoothing  down  the  African  gentle- 
man." 

Henry,  the  butler,  who  was  dozing  (?)  near  the  door, 
had  heard  this  entire  discussion.  The  door  bell  rang  and  pre- 
sently he  returned  to  the  Colonel's  den  with  a  silver  platter 
in  which  lay  the  card  of  Mr.  Robert  May,  a  man  about  town. 

46 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  HEZEKIAH  JONES. 

Henry  knocked  on  the  door,  was  told  to  come  in,  entered  ancl 
handed  Mr.  May's  card  to  the  Colonel.  "Show  the  gentle- 
man up,  Henry/* 

Mr.  Mays  was  shown  up  at  once.  Being  well  known  to 
all  the  gentlemen  present,  he  was  cordially  greeted  and  was 
soon  a  participant  in  the  informal  discussion,  the  gist  of 
which  was  given  him,  and  he  fell  in  quite  naturally  with  the 
majority  view. 

"I  hear,"  said  he,  "that  Hez  has  been  up  to  H —   -  and 

S seeing  the  boys.  Hez  has  gotten  to  be  quite  an  active 

and  prominent  politician,  Colonel,"  said  Mr.  May  addressing 
Colonel  Gibbons.  "He  is  a  pretty  shrewd  and  resourceful 
Negro.  My  waiter  was  saying  this  morning  that  if  the  Re- 
publicans win  in  this  election  the  colored  man  will  be  given 
more  recognition  than  he  has  ever  had  before.  Have  you  gen- 
tlemen been  making  pledges  to  the  colored  brethren?" 

"No,  not  pledges,"  said  the  Colonel,  "only  propositions. 
We  have  proposed  to  Hez,  their  leader,  to  give  them  a  few  of 
the  smaller  positions  if  we  win,  as  a  reward  for  their  support. 
They  may  want  more,  but  it  will  be  a  long  felt  want.  That  is 
all,"  said  the  Colonel. 

Here  the  Colonel  pressed  a  button  and  Henry,  the  butler, 
entered  the  room.  "Henry,"  he  said,  "we  have  talked  our- 
selves hungry  and  our  throats  are  all  parched.  You  may  fetch 
in  some  refershments  for  these  gentlemen — small  salads,  sand- 
wiches and  some  beer.  The  Major  drinks  Port  wine.  Bring  a 
couple  of  bottles  of  that  old  Port  from  the  cellar,  a  fresh  box 
of  cigars  and  two  bottles  of  V.  0.  P.." 

"Very  well,  sir,"  answered  Henry. 

In  less  than  half  an  hour  he  returned  wih  his  tray  well 
laden  with  such  refreshments  as  are  productive  of  brilliant  wit 
and  repartee.  The  friends  of  V.  0.  P.  brightened  up  as  old 
John  Barleycorn  entered  the  room  on  the  arm  of  Henry. 
Jokes  were  made  at  his  expense  and  many  compliments  paid 

47 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  HEZEKIAH  JONES. 

Mm  by  gentlemen  who  afterward  put  themselves  on  the  out- 
side of  his  liquid  body.  The  feast  was  as  generous  in  quantity 
as  it  was  excellent  in  quality  and  so  eager  were  all  the  gentle- 
men there  foregathered  to  do  full  justice  to  it  that  all  reference 
to  politics  was  eliminated  from  the  conversation  and  each  in 
turn  endeavored  to  excel  the  other  in  praising  their  host  and 
the  excellence  of  the  toothsome  viands  set  before  them. 
Nothing  unlimbers  a  man's  jaws  so  quickly,  especially  if  he 
be  hungry  and  thirsty,  as  a  well  prepared  chicken  salad,  a  re- 
freshing glass  of  beer  or  a  well-made  cocktail. 

The  company  at  a  late  hour  broke  up  and  Major  Dewees 
was  quite  considerably  broken  up  for  his  short  fat  legs  would 
not  behave.  He  had  been  dallying  in  private  conference  with 
V.  0.  P.  whose  age  he  had  disputed,  and  V.  O.  P.  had  gotten 
on  his  nerves  and  settled  in  his  legs.  So,  Henry  had  to  escort 
him  to  his  cab  and  even  close  the  door  of  it  for  him  for  the 
Major  was  all  in.  The  fresh  air,  however,  would  soon  re- 
store him  to  his  naturals  and  his  pride  would  do  the  rest.  The 
Colonel's  other  guests  shortly  after  left  for  their  homes  per- 
fectly undertanding  each  other,  and  resolved  to,  at  all  hazards, 
crush  even  at  the  sacrifice  of  defeating  their  party,  the  move- 
ment which  they  were  convinced  was  taking  shape  to  force 
a  Negro  into  an  office  in  which  they  did  not  want  a  Negro 
placed.  As  Puck  sapiently  observes,  "What  fools  these 
mortals  be." 


CHAPTER  IX. 

On  Monday  night  Hezekiah's  organization  held  a  special 
meeting,  notice  of  which  had  been  sent  out  before  he  left 
town,  on  the  Saturday  previous,  and  foregathered  with  the 
Ibeal  brethren  were  representatives  from  the  towns  that  Hez- 
ekiah  had  visited — bright  and  intelligent  young  men  they 
were,  too.  No  white  people  Were  admitted  and  no  reporters. 
"It  was  purely  a  business  meeting  and  could  hold  no  iriter- 

48 


THE  AWAKENING  OP  HEZEKIAH  JONES. 

est  for  the  general  public,"  was  what  Hez  told  several  white 
persons  who  applied  for  admittance. 

At  eight  o'clock  sharp  every  man  who  had  been  invited 
was  present,  and  at  8:15  Hez  rapped  for  order  and  opened 
the  meeting.  Deacon  Adoniram  Harris,  of  the  Baptist 
church,  offered  prayer.  He  invoked  divine  guidance  over  the 
deliberations  of  the  gathering  and  plead  for  the  exercise  of  the 
greatest  wisdom  and  common  sense  in  the  utterance  and  action 
"of  our  brethren  tonight." 

Hezekiah  then  arose  and  stated  "that  as  this  is  a  call 
meeting,  he  would  ask  the  secretary  to  read  the  call.  This 
was  headed  that  no  business  other  than  that  stated  in  the  call 
will  be  transacted. ' '  He  then  gave  a  brief  but  clear  and  suc- 
cinct outline  of  his  interview  with  Col.  Gibbons  and  Mr. 
Brainard,  and  cited  the  former's  intimation  of  the  intention 
of  the  regular  organization  to  recognize  members  of  the  or- 
ganization in  the  event  of  the  success  of  the  party  in  the 
forthcoming  election.  He  said  his  own  idea  about  the  matter 
was  that  to  give  fifteen  or  twenty  members  of  the  organization 
positions  paying  from  $600  to  $720  per  year  would  be  more 
satisfactory  than  giving  the  race  one  big  job  carrying  a  large 
salary;  that  the  chairman  had  expressed  a  doubt  as  to 
whether  "we  had  a  man  competent  to  fill  one  of  these  higher 
positions,"  and  that  he  had  dispelled  this  doubt  as  he  thought 
by  naming  several  members  of  the  organization  if  called  on 
to  meet  it. 

"He  asked  by  opinion  as  to  this  and  1  frankly  told 
him  that  since  it  is  conceded  by  the  party  leader  that  our  vote 
elects,  we  ought  to  be  treated  in  the  matter  of  patronage  with 
the  same  consideration  which  is  shown  other  elements  of  the 
party ;  that  we  ought  to  have  one  big  office  and  our  fair  quota 
of  minor  positions  under  the  city  and  county  government ;  that 
we  had  one  man  in  our  organization,  who  I  believed  to  be 
fully  capable  of  filling  any  city  or  county  office  which  might 
be  offered  him ;  that  he  is  a  Yale  graduate  and  perfectly  fain- 

49 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  HEZEKIAH  JONES. 

iliar  with  office  routine.  I  could  see,  gentlemen,"  said  Hez, 
with  a  twinkle  in  his  eye,  "that  this  was  not  pleasant  news  to 
the  city  chairman,  who  is  a  very  fine  man,  and  who,  I  have  rea- 
son to  think,  is  a  friend  of  mine.  From  the  expression  on  his 
face  (and  I  am  a  pretty  good  reader  of  faces)  I  could  see  that 
he  had  regretted  mentioning  the  larger  offices.  He  and  Mr. 
Brainard  wanted  me  to  commit  myself  on  this  subject,  but  I 
told  him  that  I  was  merely  your  servant  and  that  I  could 
enter  into  no  agreements  or  understandings  without  your  ex- 
press authority;  that  I  would  bring  this  matter  before  you 
tonight  and  report  to  him  at  10  o'clock  Tuesday  the  report  of 
your  action. 

"Now,  it  is  for  you,  brethren,  to  act,  and  I  hope  you  will 
do  so  with  sound  judgment  and  with  prudence.  We  are  all 
of  us  Republicans  here,  and  we  are  all  poor  men;  all  citizens, 
so-called,  who  are  robbed  of  the  right  to  representation  even 
when  we  earn  it  in  a  fair  and  open  fight.  We  are  tolerated  at 
the  polls  because  our  votes  make  majorities  for  white  men 
who  want  the  offices  we  cannot  get.  Our  handicap  to  this 
larger  recognition  in  these  committees  is  our  black  faces. 
Neither  Democrats  nor  Republicans  want  to  see  Negroes  in 
elective  or  appointive  offices  that  carry  large  salaries.  In 
these  smaller  cities  where  white  men  of  all  parties  and  creeds 
are  at  one  socially  such  an  innovation  as  the  elevation  of  ~a 
Negro  to  a  conspicuous  position  would  not  be  conducive  to  the 
political  well-being  of  the  Negro. 

"I  would  like  to  say  in  closing,  that  while  I  personally 
would  prefer  to  see  one  of  our  men  elevated  to  a  high  office, 
that  I  think  it  would  be  neither  politic  nor  wise  on  our  part 
to  insist  at  this  time  for  such  recognition.  Our  organization  is 
still  young  and  it  is  not  yet  strong  enough  to  make  such  a 
demand.  We  are  not  as  strong  as  we  hope  to  be  two  years 
hence  when  a  president  is  to  be  elected.  I  think  we  should 
approach  the  consideration  of  this  question  with  care  and  act 
upon  it  with  deliberate  and  sound  judgment  and  practical 

50 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  HEZEKIAH  JONES. 

common  sense.  If  we  can  secure  twenty  or  more  appointment* 
it  will  mean  that  twenty  Negro  families  will  be  provided  with 
breadwinners.  If  we  make  no  demand  for  one  of  the  higher 
places  at  this  time  we  may  be  able  to  secure  more  of 
the  minor  ones  for  our  deserving  voters  and  one  or  two 
clerkships  for  some  of  our  men  who  have  had  superior  ad- 
vantages of  education. 

"Think  well  before  you  decide  what  your  answer  is  go- 
ing to  be.  I  am  for  the  greatest  good  to  the  greatest  number, 
and  I  shall  second  my  vote  with  the  majority  for  I  believe 
most  of  you  feel  as  I  do  on  this  question, ' '  said  Hezekiah  taking 
his  seat. 

Up  rose  Mr.  Fleming,  the  Yale  graduate,  whom  he  at  once 
recognized.  "Mr.  Chairman/'  said  he,  "I  have  listened  with 
interest  to  your  sensible  advice  in  this  matter  and  I  most 
cheerfully  endorse  your  sentiments  and  the  practical  views  to 
which  you  have  given  utterance  as  to  the  course  which  you  be- 
lieve we  should  follow.  I  am  heartily  in  favor  of  accepting 
the  proposition  made  to  our  leader,  brethren,  that  this  organ- 
ization agree  to  the  placing  of  a  number  of  its  members  in 
minor  places  under  the  city  and  county  government  if  our 
ticket  wins,  and  I  agree  to  this  proposition  for  these  reasons: 

"  First,  as  a  race,  we  are  losing  out  economically,  indus- 
trially and  politically.  Second,  the  great  influx  of  foreigners 
to  these  shores  is  crowding  our  people  in  the  large  cities  out 
of  domestic  employment,  lowering  wages  and  increasing  the 
hours.  Third,  numericaly,  we  haven't  the  numbers,  intellec- 
tually and  commercially.  We  haven't  the  men  to  successfully 
meet  and  combat  the  conditions  which  hedge  us  about,  but  we 
can  afford  to  bid  our  time,  to  be  'as  wise  as  serpents  and 
harmless  as  doves. '  Fourth,  it  will  show  wisdom  on  our  part 
to  meet  the  regular  organization  half  way  and  to  consider  and 
act  upon  any  reasonable  proposals  it  offers  us.  Fifth,  we  can- 
not afford  to  sacrifice  the  happiness  and  the  future  of  twenty 
or  thirty  families  for  the  benefit  of  one  or  two  men  who  may 

51 


THE  AWAKENING  OP  HEZEKIAH  JONES. 

be  ambitous  to  break  ice  and  pose  as  the  first  Negro  to  hold 
an  elective  or  appointive  office  in  this  city. 

''The  interests  and  welfare  of  the  many  is  of  more  vital 
importance  than  that  of  the  few.  Being  consumers  and  not 
producers  we  could  not  successfully  enforce  a  demand  for 
such  recognition  as  has  been  suggested.  Should  we  do  so, 
the  reaction  would  be  disastrous  to  many  innocent  working 
people  of  our  race.  The  acceptance  of  this  proposition  will 
open  the  way  for  more  of  our  laboring  people  for  such  work 
as  they  know  best  how  to  do,  and,  thus,  enable  them  to  educate 
their  children  and  fit  them  for  the  larger  opportunities  which 
it  is  now  suggested  that  we  shall  seek  for  some  of  our  mem- 
bers. 

"I  think  you  all  see  the  drift  of  my  talk,  brethren,  and  I 
hope  you  will  act  upon  the  advice  given  by  our  chairman,  and, 
as  he  suggests,  with  good  judgment  and  discretion/' 

When  Mr.  Fleming  finished  Mr.  Henry  Jackson,  one  of 

the  visiting  delegates  from  H s,  a  graduate  of  the  high 

school  of  that  place,  ©btained  the  floor  and  spoke  as  follows: 
14  We  are  met  here  to-night  under  circumstances  most  pecu- 
liar to  discuss  a  phase  of  the  problem  of  race  which  accen- 
tuates the  depth  and  breadth  of  racial  antipathy.  On  paper 
and  in  campaign  speeches,  in  party  platforms  and  in  private 
converse  with  the  white  party  managers  we  are  classed,  labeled 
and  accepted  as  American  citizens.  But,  the  moment  we  lay 
claim  to  the  'rights,  privileges  and  immunities'  which  that 
title  carries  we  are  brought  face  to  face  with  the  fact  that 
we  are  Negroes,  and,  therefore,  are  DIFFERENT. 

1 '  I  have  been  talking  with  one  of  our  brethren  here  and 
he  has  informed  me  that  the  white  leaders  in  this  city  are  very 
much  exercised  over  the  probable  action  of  our  meeting  here 
tonight ;  that  he  has  heard  dark  rumors  to  the  effect  that  if  we 
insist  on  having  a  representative  of  our  race  appointed  to  a 
higher  office  than  that  named  originally  as  the  political  heri- 
tage of  the  black  man  reprisals  will  be  made  on  the  race  by 

52 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  HEZEKIAH  JONES. 


white  employers  of  Negro  labor  throughout  the  city  and 
county  and  that  hundreds  of  our  men  and  women  will  be 
thrown  out  of  employment  and  will  be  replaced  by  Slavs  and 
Poles  and  other  cheap  foreign  labor  now  crowding  into  the 
state  and  county. 

"As  I  see  this  question,  we  must  meet  it  manfully  and 
tactfully.  I  am  in  full  agreement  with  the  view  of  our  chair- 
man and  our  distinguished  friend,  Prof.  Fleming,  as  to  the 
course  we  should  follow,  and  I  do  hope  that  we  will  all  come 
to  see  the  wisdom  of  agreeing  to  the  proposition  made  to  our 
chairman  and  of  endorsing  the  recommendations  of  those  who 
have  spoken  here  tonight  on  the  subject.  I  am  unqualifiedly 
in  favor  of  any  honorable  proposition  which  will  bring  the 
greatest  good  to  the  greatest  number.  I  am  tired  of  seeing  our 
race  made  a  stepping-stone  for  demagogues,  white  or  black,  to 
get  into  office  who  forget  to  remember  us  after  they  have  used 
us.  I  want  to  see  the  plain  people  recognized  because  they 
deserve  to  be,  and,  therefore,  I  shall  vote  for  the  measure." 

These  three  addresses  had  the  desired  effect  on  the  assem- 
blage, and  no  other  speech  was  made. 

Moses  Hopkins  "Wheeler,  a  waiter  at  the  Democratic  Club, 
submitted  the  following:  "In  view  of  the  fact  that  Mr.  Hez- 
ekiah  Jones,  our  President,  has  been  approached  by  the  chair- 
man of  the  Republican  committee  with  a  view  to  ascertaining 
the  wishes  of  the  colored  Republican  organization  of  this  city 
and  county  with  regard  to  the  patronage  to  be  given  colored 
voters  for  party  services  in  the  approaching  election, 

"Resolved,  that  it  is  the  sense  of  this  meeting  that  Mr. 
Jones,  our  chairman,  be  and  he  is  hereby  authorized  to  secure 
for  this  organization,  through  the  proper  representativss  of 
the  regular  organization,  their  guarantee  in  writing  of  a  fair 
proportion  of  the  patronage  for  members  of  our  race  in  city 
and  county  offices ;  and,  that  we  place  no  restriction  upon  him 
as  to  terms  other  than  that  they  shall  be  honorable  and  in 
keeping  with  our  self  respect;  and  be  it  further, 

53 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  HEZEKIAH  JONES. 

"  Resolved,  that  the  sum  of  $250  be,  and  is  hereby  appro- 
priated as  our  contribution  to  the  campaign  fund." 

The  resolution  was  quickly  adopted  and  the  secretary  was 
directed  to  draft  a  letter  embodying  the  gist  of  the  resolution 
and  the  treasurer  was  ordered  to  draw  a  check  for  $250. 
These  were  duly  turned  over  to  Hezekiah  to  be  presented  to 
his  "fr'en*  Cy" — Col.  Gibbons  the  next  morning  at  10  o'clock 
sharp. 

The  meeting  then  resolved  itself  into  an  informal  gathering 
and  light  refreshments  were  served.  The  conversaiton  car- 
ried on  between  these  men,  many  of  whom  occupied  positions 
in  private  families,  stores  and  clubs,  disclosed  the  fact  that 
the  white  leaders  throughout  the  city  and  county  were  really 
very  much  afraid  that  the  Negroes  were  scheming  to  make 
embarrassing  demands  upon  the  organization  which  would 
threaten  the  success  of  the  ticket. 

Hezekiah  also  learned  some  things  about  his  friends  "Cy" 
and  Brainard  which  did  not  strengthen  his  confidence  in  their 
professions  of  friendship  for  the  colored  man.  He  learned 
that  the  "invitation"  to  him  to  attend  the  recent  conference 
was  a  "frame-up,"  and  that  there  really  had  been  no  inten- 
tion to  invite  him  to  that  gathering  where  the  German  and 
the  Irishman  raised  the  race  issue  and  finally  forced  their 
nomination ;  that  it  was  the  crafty  Brainard  who  suggested  to 
the  Colonel  the  trick  of  writing  the  "special  invitation"  to 
the  conference  and  that  the  Colonel  willingly  and  gladly  ac- 
cepted and  put  it  into  operation.  Henry  also  gave  him  a  pretty 
accurate  account  of  what  was  said  at  the  last  conference  in 
the  Colonel's  city  house.  The  information  moved  Hezekiah 
to  say: 

"Well,  I  didn't  think  that  of  Col.  Gibbons,  but  I'm  glad 
to  know  what  sort  of  a  man  he  really  is.  I  guess  he  is  no 
different  from  the  majority  of  men  in  his  day  who  play  one 
man  against  the  other  and  promise  them  the  earth  for  a  few 
votes.  I  always  was  suspicious  of  that  man,  Brainard.  He  is 

54 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  HBZBKIAH  JONES. 

a  Southerner  and  he  protested  too  much,  but  I  never  dreamed 
that  the  Colonel  would  play  me  false.  When  I  mentioned  to 
him  that  we  had  a  Yale  graduate  who  could  fill  any  position 
within  the  gift  of  the  party  organization,  I  was  figuring  to 
secure  just  such  a  bargain  as  we  have  voted  on  tonight.  I 
knew  that  what  I  said  to  him  would  alarm  the  leaders  and 
that  rather  than  appoint  a  Negro  superintendent  of  streets  or 
to  any  other  position  of  prominence  they  would  compromise 
by  offering  us  all  the  smaller  places  we  had  the  men  to  fill. 
I  knew  what  I  was  about  that  time/'  and  he  chuckled  im- 
moderately. 

In  a  little  while  the  meeting  broke  up  and  Hezekiah  and 
Henry  walked  home  together  as  they  lived  near  each  other. 
What  they  talked  about  is  as  Rudyard  WKipling  says :  ' '  An- 
other story." 


CHAPTER  X 

At  ten  o'clock  on  Tuesday  morning  Mr.  Hezekiah  Jones 
entered  the  office  of  Col.  Gibbons  in  Wadleigh  street  and 
found  that  gentleman  and  his  Fidus  Achates,  Brainard,  and 
several  others  of  the  committee  waiting  for  him  in  the  inner 
private  offices. 

"Good  morning,  Colonel,"  said  Hez  cheerfully.  "Good 
morning,  gentlemen,"  addressing  the  Colonel's  visitors. 

The  Colonel  arose  and  shook  his  hand  warmly.  "Good 
morning,  Hez."  He  always  addressed  him  as  "Hez" — this  is 
the  privilege  of  the  high  born.  "I  see  you  are  a  man  of  your 
word,"  he  said.  "You're  on  time  to  the  second." 

"What's  the  use  of  being  a  man  if  you  haven't  honor  enough 
to  stand  by  your  word?"  answered  Hez. 

"That's  right,  Hez.  Honor,  truth  and  punctuality  are 
valuable  assets  to  a  business  man — to  any  man  who  is  a  man. 
Sit  down,  old  man;  have  a  cigar  and  tell  us  about  your  meet- 
ing last  night." 

55 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  HEZEKIAH  JONES. 

Hez  took  the  chair  offered  him,  lighted  his  cigar  and  said 
in  a  leisurely  sort  of  way:  "Well,  Colonel  and  gentlemen,  we 
had  a  largely  attended  and  very  interesting  meeting  last 
night.  There  were  present  men  from  all  the  smaller  towns 
near  by.  Of  course  it  was  a  business  meeting  and  we  could 
not  admit  outsiders  nor  reporters  as  the  proceedings  would 
not  have  interested  them." 

"I  see/'  said  the  Colonel. 

"I  laid  your  proposition  before  the  meeting  and  invited 
discussion.  There  was  a  strong  sentiment  in  favor  of  demand- 
ing a  representative  position  for  a  member  of  our  race  under 
the  city  or  county  government/'  said  Hez  smiling  and  looking 
directly  at  Brainard,  who  flushed,  stood  up  for  a  second  or 
so  and  then  sat  down  again,  "but  I  made  a  brief  talk  and 
was  followed  by  two  other  members,  who  spoke  as  I  did 
against  that  idea.  The  trend  of  our  talk  was  that  your  pro- 
position to  recognize  us  by  giving  us  a  number  of  minor 
places  was  a  wise  and  practical  one  and  that  we  ought  to  ac- 
cept it.  The  matter  was  finally  put  to  a  vote  and  was  un- 
animously adopted,  and  so  I  was  deputized  to  report  to  you 
our  action  and  directed  to  secure  from  you  your  proposition 
in  writing1  duly  witnessed  by  members  of  your  organization 
to  be  submitted  to  a  meeting  we  have  set  for  Thursday  night." 

"Bully  for  you,  Hez!"  exclaimed  several  of  the  committee. 
"" Bravo,"  said  Brainard. 

"Thanks,  gentlemen,"  said  Hez.  "By-the-way,  Colonel,  I  am 
also  directed  to  hand  you  this,"  passing  the  resolution  and  the 
check  for  the  two  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  to  the  city  chair- 
man. 

"The  Colonel  took  the  letter  and  read  it  aloud.  The  check 
for  $250  interested  and  pleasedJ  him.  It  was  something  the 
colored  political  organization  had  never  done  before,  and  it 
argued  that  they  were  learning  practical  politics  with  avidity. 
Heretofore,  they  had  solicited  funds  from  the  committee ;  now 

56 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  HEZEKIAH  JONES.    

they  were  contributors  to  the  party's  war  chest  and  their  rea- 
sonable demands  would  have  to  be  recognized  and  granted 
when  humanly  possible. 

The  check  made  a  great  impression  on  Brainard  and  he 
revised  somewhat  his  impression  of  the  "darkey."  These 
"  darkies "  were  an  enigma  he  could  not  solve. 

"  Gentlemen, "  said  Hezekiah,  when  the  hubbub  caused  by 
the  gift  of  the  check  had  subsided,  "we  Negroes  are  Repub- 
licans and  we  are  too  loyal  to  the  traditions  and  principles 
of  our  party  to  take  any  advantage  of  the  party  leaders  be- 
cause we  happen  to  have  the  opportunity  to  do  so.  We  realize 
that  this  is  an  important  election  and  that  it  is  going  to  be 
a  close  one.  We  have  the  votes,  as  you  well  know,  to  throw 
it  the  other  way.  Two  hundred  and  twenty-five  votes  will  beat 
the  Republican  candidate  for  mayor,  and  you,  Colonel,  know 
how  many  votes  I  can  muster,  so  we  need  not  discuss  that 
point.  I  merely  wish  you  gentlemen  to  understand  that  the 
Negro  voters  in  this  election  are  not  disposed  to  play  you 
false,  but  we  want  a  guarantee  of  a  square  deal  if  we  win 
and  we  want  a  guarantee  in  writing  that  you  will  not  play 
us  false  when  the  election  is  over. 

"We  do  not  wish  to  embarrass  you  by  making  what  you 
regard  as  unreasonable  demands  for  patronage  for  our  race 
though  by  every  right  we  are  justified  in  making  such  demand 
by  reason  of  our  voting  strength.  You  have  all  had  proof 
of  its  efficiency  and  potency  in  past  elections  and  you  know 
insulting  speech  at  the  Clef  Club  on  the  night  before  election 
that  it  was  our  vote  that  defeated  the  last  Republican  candi- 
date for  mayor  of  this  city  after  he  had  tacitly  refused  to 
make  concessions  to  the  Negro  voters.  You  remember  his 
in  which  he  alluded  to  the  Negroes  as  the  people  whose  high- 
est ambition  is  to  vote  the  Republican  ticket  and  'get  their  pay 
for  so  doing  in  advance !'  He  said  this  jocularly,  but  we  took 
it  seriously,  and  enough  of  us  voted  against  him  to  defeat 
him."  T 

57 


THE  AWAKENING  OP  HEZEKIAH  JONES. 

The  committee  exchanged  looks  while  Brainard  coughed 
slightly  and  lighted  another  cigar. 

"Hez,"  said  the  Colonel,  "we  are  all  glad  that  your  peo- 
ple have  decided  to  act  sensibly  on  the  suggestion  I  made 
you  the  other  day  in  the  matter  of  patronage  and  I  am  will- 
ing and  ready  to  reduce  to  writing  what  I  then  said  to  you.  I 
will  go  a  little  further,  and  promise  you  two  or  three  minor 
clerkships  for  some  of  your  bright  young  men,  and  you  can 
submit  this  amended  proposition  to  your  meeting  on  Thurs- 
day. So  far  as  I  am  concerned  the  colored  boys  shall  have 
the  preference  in  all  the  city  work  such  as  laborers,  messengers 
and  porters,  and  I  believe  these  gentlemen  will  back  me  up  in 
this  statement. " 

"We  will,  Colonel "  they  said  almost  in  unison. 

"There  is  no  reason, "  said  Brainard,  "why  these  loyal 
colored  Republicans  should  not  have  the  pick  of  the  jobs  to 
be  appointed  and  we  will  insist  that  they  get  their  full  share 
of  them,"  he  said  with  a  finality  which  disclosed  the  secret  joy 
he  felt  at  the  turn  affairs  had  taken. 

"Drop  in  in  the  course  of  an  hour,  Hez,"  said  the  Colonel, 
"and  I  will  have  the  guarantee  you  want  ready  for  you  and 
signed  by  all  the  leading  members  of  the  committee." 

"Very  well,  Colonel,"  said  Hez.  "I  will  call  here  about  four 
p.  m.  Now  I  must  go  up  to  the  bank  and  do  a  little  work  to 
earn  my  salary.  Good  afternoon,  gentlemen,"  he  said  with  a 
sly  twinkle  in  his  eye,  as  he  bowed  himself  out. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

As  Hez  wended  his  way  to  the  bank  he  chuckled  several 
times  and  said  to  himself:  "I  have  gotten  the  thin  edge  of 
the  wedge  almost  under  the  city  committee,  and  have  paved 
the  way  for  many  of  the  faithful  to  good  jobs.  *  First  the 
blade,  then  the  ear,  then  the  full  corn/  "  he  muttered. 

58 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  HEZEKIAH  JONES. 

He  had  learned  a  lesson  which  he  never  forgot,  a  lesson 
which  too  many  black  men  rearly  learn  or  will  not  learn,  viz: 
that  as  between  a  black  man  and  a  white  man  in  a  struggle 
for  points  in  the  political  game  "blood  is  thicker  than 
water ";  that  familiarity,  free  dinners,  rich  wines,  and  ex- 
pensive cigars,  front-porch  tete-a-tetes  and  all  the  usual  tricks 
of  cunning  of  white  politicians  are  simply  employed  as  means 
to  an  end,  and  to  befog  the  black  brother;  that,  when  the 
end  has  been  served  the  black  man  is  still  a  black  man.  He 
enjoys  no  privileges,  holds  no  exalted  positions  except  by  the 
sufferance  of  the  white  man,  or  from  motives  of  political  ex- 
pediency or  necessity.  Hezekiah  had  this  advantage  over 
the  city  chairman  and  his  fellow  conspirators — he  knew  what 
they  knew  and  what  they  were  attempting  to  do;  knew  their 
every  move  and  their  hopes  and  aims,  while  they  were 
ignorant  of  the  fact  that  he  was  in  possession  of  this  knowl- 
edge which  discovered  to  him  their  rank  hypocrisy,  deceit, 
double-dealing  and  treachery.  He  knew  that  the  concessions 
they  were  willing  to  make  were  born  of  political  expediency 
and  the  fear  of  a  revolt  among  the  Negro  voters  which  might 
result  in  the  defeat  of  the  ticket. 

It  was  too  near  election  and  there  was  too  much  at  stake 
for  the  party  to  issue  a  defi  to  its  black  supporters  and  so  with 
bad  grace  and  in  the  desperation  of  despair  the  Colonel  and 
his  colleagues  took  counsel  together  and  decided  to  yield  to 
any  reasonable  demand  made  by  Hezekiah  for  his  supporters, 
who,  be  it  said  to  their  eternal  credit,  were  as  steadfast  and 
loyal  to  him  as  are  the  Tammany  legions  to  their  big  Boss. 
And  they  let  it  be  known  everywhere  that  they  intended  to 
stand  by  Hezekiah  in  this  fight  no  matter  what  happened  and 
they  said  this  so  earnestly  and  seriously  that  the  little  two-by- 
four  white  politicians  all  over  the  city  and  county  realized  that 
the  Negroes  for  once  in  their  political  lives  were  playing  the 
game  like  themselves,  and  were  terribly  in  earnest  about  it. 
Hezekiah  was  their  leader,  not  only  in  name,  but  in  very  fact. 

59 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  HEZEKIAH  JONES. 

When  Hezekiah  returned  to  Colonel  Gibbons'  office  he 
found  the  chairman  in  a  state  of  mental  pertubation  and  in 
the  act  of  framing  the  letter  promised  which  to  contain  the 
pledged  words  of  the  party  organization  to  the  Negro  voters 
on  the  matter  of  patronage. 

"Glad  to  see  you  back,  Hezekiah,"  said  the  chairman. 

"Yes,"  spoke  up  several  members  of  the  committee  who 
had  been  discussing  the  matter  since  Hezekiah  left  and  try- 
ing to  figure  out  just  what  would  be  considered  a  fair  "shake 
down"  for  the  colored  brethren. 

"Before  we  close  the  letter,  Hez,"  said  the  Colonel,  "we 
had  better  decide  among  us  just  what  the  organization  will 
agree  to  do  and  what  your  organization  will  abide  by  if  agree- 
able." 

"Now,  what  do  you  want  us  to  do!"  asked  Brainard. 

Without  paying  the  least  attention  to  this  impertinent 
question,  Hezekiah  turned  to  Major  Dewees  and  said:  "I 
hear  you  have  leased  your  house  in  Carpenter  street,  Major. 
It  is  a  fine  house  and  I  hope  you  have  secured  a  tenant  who 
will  take  as  good  care  of  the  property  as  Mr.  Morris  did." 

"Yes,  I  hope  so,  Hezekiah.  I  was  sorry  to  lose  Mr.  Morris 
for  he  was  excellent  pay  and  took  as  much  interest  in  the  pro- 
perty as  if  it  was  his  own.  He  and  his  wife  are  going  to  settle 
down  in  Italy.  Since  they  lost  their  boy  they  have  not  seemed 
quite  satisfied  to  remain  in  America." 

"They  are  very  fine  people,"  said  Hez,  "and  it  is  too  bad 
they  are  going  to  leave  the  country.  It  seems  as  though  all 
the  best  white  people  in  America  or  either  dead  or  gone  to  live 
in  Europe.  The  Morrises  were  particularly  good  to  our  col- 
ored people  here  and  were  liberal  with  their  money.  They 
are  educating  two  of  our  boys  and  one  girl  in  a  Southern 
college.'1 

"Is  that  so?"  queried  Brainard,  determined  to  be  noticed. 

But  before  he  could  receive  an  answer,  if  any  were  in- 

60 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  HEZEKIAH  JONES. 

tended,  the  Colonel  attempted  to  put  to  Hezekiah  a  series  of 
questions  as  to  his  wishes  in  respect  to  the  character  of  the 
recognition  he  wanted. 

Hezekiah  drew  from  his  pocket  a  paper  which  he  handed 
to  Colonel  Gibbons,  remarking  as  he  did  so:  "I  think,  Col- 
onel, that  this  is  a  reasonable  demand." 

The  Colonel  read  aloud  tis  contents  which  were  as  follows : 
' '  Two  Clerks  in  Water  department,  Messengers  and  labor- 
ers in  City  Hall,  Clerk  in  City  Court,  Deputy  Superintendent 
of  Street  Cleaning,  ten  laborers  in  Street  Cleaning  Depart- 
ment, two  messengers  in  Board  of  Public  Works,  two  watch- 
men at  City  Park,  Four  laborers  in  Dock  Department  (26). 

"This  isn't  a  bad  beginning,"  said  the  Colonel,  smiling. 

"No,"  said  Hez,  "it  isn't.  If  the  party  comes  back  I'll 
hand  you  another  list  for  there  are  a  number  of  places  I  have 
found  which  colored  men  can  fill  and  ought  to  have.  Now 
if  you  and  your  associates  are  prepared  to  guarantee  these 
places  in  writing  we  stand  prepared  to  deliver  the  solid  Negro 
vote  for  the  entire  ticket.  I  need  not  tell  you,  for  you  know 
it,  that  the  Negroes  of  this  city  never  scratch  a  ticket  that 
I  endorse.  They  have  confidence  in  my  judgment  in  these 
matters  and  where  I  give  the  word  they  act." 

Every  man  in  the  room  looked  at  Hez  when  he  said  this, 
because  his  manner  was  impressive  and  the  words  were  utter- 
ed with  earnestness  and  vigor.  "If  you  want  to  win  and 
want  us  to  help  you  win  this  battle,  give  us  a  square  deal  af- 
ter the  victory  has  been  won." 

"That  is  a  fair  proposition,  gentlemen,"  said  Major  Saxe. 
"Mr.  Jones  has  not  asked  too  much  of  us  and  I  think  it  will 
conserve  our  interests  to  grant  the  requests  he  has  made." 

"It  is  not  a  request,  Major,"  spoke  up  Hezekiah  bravely, 
"but  a  respectful  demand  for  what  is  our  due  as  political 
integers,  a  demand  based  upon  the  percentages  of  the  Repub- 
lican vote  in  this  city  and  county  for  the  past  dozen  years. 

61 


THE  AWAKENING  OF  HEZEKIAH  JONES. 

We  ask  no  favor,  but  we  do  demand  our  rights." 

The  committee  looked  at  each  other.  Brainard  nodded 
to  Col.  Gibbons  and  the  latter,  taking  up  again  Hezekiah's 
memoranda  and  placing  it  before  him  on  his  desk,  incorporated 
its  entire  contents  in  his  letter  to  be  submitted  to  Hez's  organ- 
ization. 

Signing  it  as  chairman  he  read  it  aloud  for  the  benefit  of 
his  colleagues  who  endorsed  and  signed  it  as  the  sentiment 
of  the  regular  organization.  The  Colonel  folded  and  placed  it 
in  an  official  envelop  which  he  addressed  to  "Mr.  Hezekiah 
Jones,  President  Negro  Republican  Club,"  blotted  it  and 
passed  it  over  to  Hezekiah. 

Then  everybody  took  an  ounce  or  two  of  Scotch  and  a 
fresh  cigar,  and  shook  hands  all  round. 

Hezekiah  Jones  had  not  been  the  only  one  to  experience 
an  awakening,  for  the  white  brethren  had  also  been  aroused 
and  awakened  to  the  fact  that  the  Negro  is  rapidly  arriving 
and  is  on  his  way  to  political  independence  of  thought  and 
action.  The  awakening  of  Hezekiah  Jones,  it  is  hoped,  will 
teach  a  lesson  to  black  men  everywhere  who  seem  to  have 
lost  faith  in  the  self -redeeming  power  of  the  race  and  in  the 
honesty  and  integrity  of  those  whom  they  have  chosen  to  be 
their  leaders.  The  moral  is:  Follow  your  leader,  give  him 
your  confidence  and  your  loyal  support. 


THE  END. 


62 


SS! 


